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11. <title>Dissident Voice</title>
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14. <description>a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice</description>
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23. <title>Fascism Is Imperialism Turned Homeward</title>
24. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/fascism-is-imperialism-turned-homeward/</link>
26. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Rockstroh]]></dc:creator>
27. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 15:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
28. <category><![CDATA[Consumerism]]></category>
29. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
30. <category><![CDATA[Fascism]]></category>
31. <category><![CDATA[Imperialism]]></category>
32. <category><![CDATA[Militarism]]></category>
33. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
34. <category><![CDATA[Alvin Halsey]]></category>
35. <category><![CDATA[Gustavo Petro]]></category>
36. <category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
37. <category><![CDATA[Pablo Neruda]]></category>
38. <category><![CDATA[Pete Hegseth]]></category>
39. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162644</guid>
40.  
41. <description><![CDATA[<p>Admiral Alvin Halsey resigned his post as the Pentagon’s Southern Commander after a fraught meeting with Pete Hegseth involving the US military’s unconstitutional attacks on Venezuelan fishing boats. Since then, the Trump administration has shown ever increasing signs of wanting to wage war on Venezuela. Picture and think this through: Seagoing US vessels, leaving US [&#8230;]</p>
42. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/fascism-is-imperialism-turned-homeward/">Fascism Is Imperialism Turned Homeward</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
43. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Jesus-and-Trump.png"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-162647" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Jesus-and-Trump.png" alt="" width="505" height="304" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Jesus-and-Trump.png 505w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Jesus-and-Trump-300x181.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 505px) 100vw, 505px" /></a><br />
44. Admiral Alvin Halsey resigned his post as the Pentagon’s Southern Commander after a fraught meeting with Pete Hegseth involving the US military’s unconstitutional attacks on Venezuelan fishing boats. Since then, the Trump administration has shown ever increasing signs of wanting to wage war on Venezuela.</p>
45. <p>Picture and think this through: Seagoing US vessels, leaving US ports, carrying cargo far more deadly than cocaine e.g., weapons bound for genocide-crazed Israel.</p>
46. <p>Imagine: If a foreign power began attacking said vessels claiming they were engaged in transporting deadly substances. The rage for blood vengeance would deafen the ears and numb the collective soul of the nation.</p>
47. <p>To wit, the US, via the MAGA-Reich, is perpetuating a murderous rampage on innocuous fishing boats in the Caribbean waters off the shores of Venezuela. The soul-dead Big Liars of the Trump, “the Peace President” regime insist they are entitled, by the guiding Almighty hand (caucasoid, of course) of the Sky Daddy to kill, sans consequence, to wage war, without congressional consultation and consent, and simply violate any law, domestic or international, at their Third Reich-adjacent caprice.</p>
48. <p>The beneficiaries and operatives of US imperialism believe it is their birthright to impose their blood-drenching will (in the service of their kleptocratic value system) upon the nations of the Southern hemisphere of the Americas (as well as on a global basis).</p>
49. <p>The only difference here is: the open display of bloodlust evinced by Trumpian psychopathy.</p>
50. <figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tlc7!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26552b68-6dd5-4a06-9900-b20cff589dd8_262x394.jpeg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" title="May be an image of ‎map and ‎text that says '‎AMER AM M ER शि حد ن ၁, AMERICA ea R‎'‎‎" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tlc7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26552b68-6dd5-4a06-9900-b20cff589dd8_262x394.jpeg" alt="May be an image of ‎map and ‎text that says '‎AMER AM M ER शि حد ن ၁, AMERICA ea R‎'‎‎" /></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Question for the ages: Why is Uncle Sam sporting a mullet?</figcaption></figure>
51. <p>In the Nixon tapes, Richard Nixon and his three piece suit clad goon squad can be heard positing the so-called War On Drugs, in their bigotry rancid minds, was, in reality, a war they were waging on hippies, leftist radicals, Black people and other US citizens of color.</p>
52. <p>To wit, fascism is imperialism turned homeward. At present, military patrols lumber through domestic cities as the dogs of war are unloosed on weaker nations abroad, all as the worst among us pretend that not only things are normal but the hand of God — reigning over the US’ fifty-first state i.e., White supremacist Heaven — is guiding Trump’s et. al. acts of fascist/imperialist aggression.</p>
53. <p>Steve Bannon, in an interview with <em>The Economist</em>,</p>
54. <blockquote><p>“Well he’s gonna get a third term. Trump is gonna be president in ‘28 and people ought to just get accommodated with that. At the appropriate time we’ll lay out what the plan is, but there’s a plan and President Trump will be the president in ‘28. […] “…He’s an instrument. He’s very imperfect. He’s not churchy, not particularly religious, but he’s an instrument of divine will, and you can tell this of how we’ve, how he’s pulled this off. We need him for at least one more term, right, and he’ll get that in 28.”</p>
55. <p>“[H]e’s an instrument of divine will.”</p></blockquote>
56. <p>You heard it: Bannon, White’s Supremacist Heaven’s prophet on this sin-sullied earth, has foretold the future. Watching from his eternal throne room, MAGA red hat-crowned God has ordained the Third Coming of Jesus J. Trump.</p>
57. <p>The Celestial Autopen’s writing is on the wall of left-tard Babylon.</p>
58. <p>What divine punishment will befall those who do not heed the Word the Lord Of MAGA Eternity? Will the Potomac run red with blood as it did in Pharaoh’s kingdom? Will a plague of boils disfigure the pampered epidermises of Woke Hollywood? Will a rain of righteous frogs fall from Heaven to dispatch to Hell the demoniac legions of Antifa frogs of Portland?</p>
59. <p>History has revealed, whenever a nation’s rulers and assorted minions proclaim they are acting as vessels of God’s will they, in fact, are possessed by the mode of mind and modus operandi of a death cult.</p>
60. <p>We are, at present, not being confronted by the moral and spiritual equivalence evinced by followers of the First Century mystic/renegade rabbi/challenger of prevailing orthodoxy Jesus of Nazareth; we are subject to the blood-lusting rule of devotees of Moloch.</p>
61. <p><em>“Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgement! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!”</em></p>
62. <figure class="wp-block-image"><a class="image-link image2" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2G7B!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1f633a4-c727-4e6d-9ee8-ecb385d83480_306x165.jpeg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" title="Allen Ginsberg, American Protest and the German Expressionists – Discover Something New" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2G7B!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1f633a4-c727-4e6d-9ee8-ecb385d83480_306x165.jpeg" alt="Allen Ginsberg, American Protest and the German Expressionists – Discover Something New" /></a></figure>
63. <p><em>“They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pavements, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!”</em></p>
64. <p>— excerpts, Howl, Allen Ginsberg</p>
65. <p>They will, in the end, break their backs attempting to lift their ruling God Moloch to heaven — but not before they break the (already cracking up) US republic.</p>
66. <p>Colombian President Gustavo Petro: “There is no superior race. There is no ‘chosen people of God’. neither the United States nor Israel. The ‘chosen people of God is all of humanity.&#8221;</p>
67. <p>Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda limned in lines of verse the avarice-possessed worshipers of Moloch when the Yankee kleptocratic financial elite focused upon and set into motion their greedhead agendas towards the southern hemisphere of the Americas:</p>
68. <p><em>With the bloodthirsty flies<br />
69. came the Fruit Company [i.e., any and all US corporate class fascists and their US government operatives],<br />
70. amassed coffee and fruit </em>[and oil]<br />
71. <em>in ships which put to sea like<br />
72. overloaded trays with the treasures<br />
73. from our sunken lands.<br />
74. Meanwhile the Indians fall<br />
75. into the sugared depths of the<br />
76. harbors and are buried in the<br />
77. morning mists;<br />
78. a corpse rolls, a thing without<br />
79. name, a discarded number,<br />
80. a bunch of rotten fruit<br />
81. thrown on the garbage heap.</em><br />
82. — excerpt, “United Fruit Co.” by Pablo Neruda</p>
83. <p><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!vvD5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27b81a40-7776-4b5f-a1f7-2f4f42d70c20_600x400.jpeg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" title="Explaining the 2019 Social Rebellion in Chile - New Politics" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!vvD5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27b81a40-7776-4b5f-a1f7-2f4f42d70c20_600x400.jpeg" alt="Explaining the 2019 Social Rebellion in Chile - New Politics" /></a></p>
84. <p>The US imperialist installed authoritarian leadership was, in time, deposed in Chile, due to a widespread popular uprising that included nationwide general strikes.</p>
85. <p>Is a similar popular uprising possible in the US?</p>
86. <p>It would be a hard sell, due to the US citizenry-become-consumers internalization of the (false) value system concomitant to corporatism.</p>
87. <p>Reality revealed, as the MAGA-Reich’s boot of state is being lowered on the necks of marginalized outsider groups i.e., people bereft of representation, insofar as for the majority of the citizenry, the illusion of everyday normalcy continues unabated.</p>
88. <p>On a personal basis, my life story makes the inclination to normalize the abhorrent psychologically undoable. In the late 1930s, in Berlin Germany, the Gestapo entered the family home of my maternal grandparents and arrested my grandfather. He, the Jewish owner of a scrap metal business, was accused of crimes against the state.</p>
89. <p>Henrik Meyer was the treasure of an anti-Nazi resistance group. For the crime of dissent against fascism he was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Later, my grandmother placed her two daughters, my mother and my aunt, on a Kindertransport bound for the UK. Thus whether it is Israel’s genocidal rampage through Gaza with the agenda of a Zionist version of Lebensraum<sup class="modern-footnotes-footnote ">1</sup> or Christian-nationalist deification of the rightwing propagandist Charlie Kirk or ICE fascistic thuggery perpetrated on those human beings labeled alien others — I feel outrage rising from ancestral memories stored in my very DNA.</p>
90. <p>Yet under authoritarian rule, life goes on as official cruelty is passed off as the rule of law Trump snarls, US urban areas are crime plagued hellscapes in which lawlessness threatens all that is good and decent. Therefore the only lawless permitted…is the caprice of his fascist shock-troops. Lawlessness should be an exclusive privilege of the state.</p>
91. <p><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4Qni!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb59b031e-adfd-4e9c-b563-9d838f2e189d_1170x1231.png" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" title="" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4Qni!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb59b031e-adfd-4e9c-b563-9d838f2e189d_1170x1231.png" alt="" /></a></p>
92. <p>An ICE thug in Addison, Illinois, donning an American flag mask, smashes a woman’s car window with her terrorized children inside the vehicle.</p>
93. <p>All coming to pass as Steve Bannon and his fellow Christian-nationalist asylum inmates of the MAGA dayroom would have us believe the hand of The Lord is guiding the handcuffing of children and the rendering of detainees — innocent of any having committed any crime — to undisclosed “black sites” across the globe wherein they are confined to what are, in essence, no-exit death camps.</p>
94. <p><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!xcxU!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8497a26-c5a1-4a96-8e16-9c4098432b59_650x801.jpeg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" title="Henry Moore (English, 1898-1986) 'Spanish Prisoner' 1939" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!xcxU!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8497a26-c5a1-4a96-8e16-9c4098432b59_650x801.jpeg" alt="Henry Moore (English, 1898-1986) 'Spanish Prisoner' 1939" /></a></p>
95. <p>Spanish Prisoner, 1939, by Henry Moore.</p>
96. <p>Are you angry yet? Do you feel a sense of animus rising from your gut? Anger is libido. For the moment, do not attempt to push it away.</p>
97. <p>While rightist demagogues retail in displaced anger, on-target, sacred vehemence changes the world for the better.</p>
98. <p>In closing, I proffer this request: to consider, what is the fate of empire? And, finally, to ask yourself, what will be my part in the unfolding scene?</p>
99. <p>&#8220;Destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it.&#8221;<br />
100. — apocryphal, but often attributed to novelist Henry Miller</p>
101. <p><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!G9nT!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faedcefb4-ccad-4fa4-a8aa-a475bb0d311e_1200x810.jpeg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img decoding="async" title="Henry Moore (English, 1898-1986) 'Three Fates' 1941" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!G9nT!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faedcefb4-ccad-4fa4-a8aa-a475bb0d311e_1200x810.jpeg" alt="Henry Moore (English, 1898-1986) 'Three Fates' 1941" /></a></p>
102. <p>Henry Moore, <em>Three Fates</em></p>
103. <p><strong>ENDNOTE</strong>:</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/fascism-is-imperialism-turned-homeward/">Fascism Is Imperialism Turned Homeward</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.<div>1&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Lebensraum is a German term meaning “living space” that was used by the Nazis to justify their policy of territorial expansion and aggression, particularly eastward into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. This concept was a central part of Nazi ideology and foreign policy, aimed at acquiring more land for German settlement by conquering and displacing the existing populations, whom the Nazis considered racially inferior.</div>]]></content:encoded>
107. </item>
108. <item>
109. <title>The Pure Evil of America’s QME Doctrine</title>
110. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-pure-evil-of-americas-qme-doctrine/</link>
112. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Stuart Littlewood]]></dc:creator>
113. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 14:59:23 +0000</pubDate>
114. <category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
115. <category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
116. <category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
117. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
118. <category><![CDATA[US Congress]]></category>
119. <category><![CDATA[Andrew Shapiro]]></category>
120. <category><![CDATA[Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention]]></category>
121. <category><![CDATA[Chemical Weapons Convention]]></category>
122. <category><![CDATA[Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty]]></category>
123. <category><![CDATA[Foreign Military Financing programme]]></category>
124. <category><![CDATA[Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]]></category>
125. <category><![CDATA[Qualitative Military Edge]]></category>
126. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162628</guid>
127.  
128. <description><![CDATA[<p>Shameful US legislation commits to ensuring Israel always has superiority in weapons, technology, training, command and control, and intelligence over its neighbours. It&#8217;s time everyone knew why the US is joined at the hip with a loathsome genocidal ethnocracy like Israel whose stated aim is domination of the Holy Land and beyond. In 2008, Congress [&#8230;]</p>
129. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-pure-evil-of-americas-qme-doctrine/">The Pure Evil of America’s QME Doctrine</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
130. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/littlewood.jpg"><img decoding="async" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/littlewood-218x300.jpg" alt="" width="218" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-162632" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/littlewood-218x300.jpg 218w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/littlewood.jpg 364w" sizes="(max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px" /></a>Shameful US legislation commits to ensuring Israel always has superiority in weapons, technology, training, command and control, and intelligence over its neighbours.</p>
131. <p>It&#8217;s time everyone knew why the US is joined at the hip with a loathsome genocidal ethnocracy like Israel whose stated aim is domination of the Holy Land and beyond.</p>
132. <p>In 2008, Congress enacted legislation requiring that US arms sales to any country in the Middle East other than Israel must not adversely affect Israel’s “qualitative military edge” (QME). This ensures the apartheid state always has the upper hand over it neighbours. It is central to US Middle East policy and aims to keep the region at or near boiling point and ripe for exploitation.</p>
133. <p>The UK has superglued itself to this evil US-Israel partnership for so-called security and other dubious reasons.</p>
134. <p>Legislation defines QME as “the ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states or from non-state actors, while sustaining minimal damages and casualties, through the use of superior military means, possessed in sufficient quantity, including weapons, command, control, communication, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities that in their technical characteristics are superior in capability to those of such other individual or possible coalition of states or non-state actors.”</p>
135. <p>In a speech to the <em>Washington Institute for Near East Policy</em> on 4 November 2011, Andrew Shapiro (Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the State Department), enlarged on QME saying:</p>
136. <blockquote><p>As a result of the Obama Administration’s commitment, our security relationship with Israel is broader, deeper and more intense than ever before. One of my primary responsibilities is to preserve Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge, or QME. This is not just a top priority for me, it is a top priority for the Secretary and for the President.</p>
137. <p>It is widely known that our two countries share a special bond that is rooted in our common values and interwoven cultures…. We are committed to that special bond, and we are going to do what’s required to back that up, not just with words but with actions.</p></blockquote>
138. <p>Most British people would be mortified to think we as a nation had a special bond or any shared values with such a repulsive regime yet some of our senior politicians seem (mistakenly) to think we have.</p>
139. <p>“The cornerstone of America’s security commitment to Israel has been an assurance that the United States would help Israel uphold its qualitative military edge,&#8221; continued Shapiro. &#8220;This commitment was written into law in 2008 and each and every security assistance request from the Israeli Government is evaluated in light of our policy to uphold Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge.”</p>
140. <p>And he explained how, for three decades, Israel had been the leading beneficiary of US security assistance through the <em>Foreign Military Financing</em> programme (FMF) which was providing $3 billion per year for training and equipment. A 2007 memorandum of understanding provided for $30 billion in security assistance over 10 years, allowing Israel to purchase the sophisticated defence equipment it needs to maintain its qualitative military edge. 60 percent of US security assistance funding to some 70 countries went to Israel.</p>
141. <p>But here’s the really warped bit. Shapiro claimed: “Our support for Israel’s security helps preserve peace and stability in the region. If Israel were weaker, its enemies would be bolder. This would make broader conflict more likely, which would be catastrophic to American interests in the region. It is the very strength of Israel’s military which deters potential aggressors and helps foster peace and stability. Ensuring Israel’s military strength and its superiority in the region, is therefore critical to regional stability and as a result is fundamentally a core interest of the United States.”</p>
142. <p>Well, that worked well, didn’t it? Israel is an unwelcome alien intruder and has spent its time picking quarrels with its neighbours, stealing their lands and slaughtering their citizens, safe in the knowledge that the mighty US protects them regardless of their aggressive behaviour.</p>
143. <p>Shapiro went on:</p>
144. <blockquote><p>The United States also experiences a number of tangible benefits from our close partnership with Israel. For instance, joint exercises allow us to learn from Israel’s experience in urban warfare and counterterrorism.</p></blockquote>
145. <p>Yes, gained and honed from decades of surveillance, assaults, bombardments and brutal persecution of the captive Palestinian people under Israeli military occupation, and having to deal with Palestinian resistance. And now genocide, which must have provided a wealth of &#8216;advanced&#8217; experience.</p>
146. <blockquote><p>Israeli technology is proving critical to improving our Homeland Security and protecting our troops. One only has to look at Afghanistan and Iraq…. Israel is a vital ally and serves as a cornerstone of our regional security commitments. From confronting Iranian aggression, to working together to combat transnational terrorist networks, to stopping nuclear proliferation and supporting democratic change and economic development in the region – it is clear that both our strategic outlook, as well as our national interests are strongly in sync…. Our security assistance to Israel also helps support American jobs, since the vast majority of security assistance to Israel is spent on American-made goods and services.</p></blockquote>
147. <p>It was then time for him to demonise Iran.</p>
148. <blockquote><p>The Iranian regime continues to be committed to upsetting peace and stability in the region and beyond. Iran’s nuclear program is a serious concern, particularly in light of Iran’s expansion of the program over the past several years in defiance of its international obligations.</p></blockquote>
149. <p>So, speaking of international obligations, how safe is the region under the threat of Israel’s nukes? Why is Israel the only state in the region not to have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? Are we all supposed to believe that Israel’s 200 (or is it 400?) nuclear warheads pose no threat? Why hasn’t Israel signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, and why has it signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, similarly the Chemical Weapons Convention?</p>
150. <p><strong>What the updated 2012 legislation says</strong></p>
151. <p>The US views its QME policy as crucial for Israel&#8217;s survival and for maintaining a strategic balance in the region, citing Israel&#8217;s role as a &#8220;bastion of liberal representative government&#8221;. And these barmy ideas are enshrined in something called the <em>&#8216;United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012&#8217;</em>. Read the whole thing <a href="https://www.congress.gov/112/statute/STATUTE-126/STATUTE-126-Pg1146.pdf">here</a>, if you have the stomach for it.</p>
152. <p>It kicks off by saying Congress makes the following findings:</p>
153. <p>Since 1948, United States Presidents and both houses of Congress, on a bipartisan basis and supported by the American people, have repeatedly reaffirmed the special bond between the United States and Israel, based on shared values and shared interests.</p>
154. <p>The Middle East is undergoing rapid change, bringing it hope for an expansion of democracy but also great challenges to the national security of the United States and our allies in the region, particularly to our most important ally in the region, Israel.</p>
155. <p>The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is continuing its decades-long pattern of seeking to foment instability and promote extremism in the Middle East, particularly in this time of dramatic political transition.</p>
156. <p>At the same time, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.</p>
157. <p>A nuclear-weapons capable Iran would fundamentally threaten vital United States interests, encourage regional nuclear proliferation, further empower Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, and pose a serious and destabilizing threat to Israel and the region.</p>
158. <p>Over the past several years, with the assistance of the Governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syria, Hizbollah and Hamas have increased their stockpile of rockets, with more than 60,000 now ready to be fired at Israel. The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to add to its arsenal of ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, which threaten Iran’s neighbors, Israel, and United States Armed Forces in the region.</p>
159. <p>US law requires the President to certify to Congress that any arms sale to a Middle Eastern country other than Israel will not negatively affect Israel&#8217;s QME. And the legislation incudes this statement:</p>
160. <blockquote><p>It is the policy of the United States to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the security of the State of Israel as a Jewish state. As President Barack Obama stated on December 16, 2011. &#8216;America’s commitment and my commitment to Israel and Israel’s security is unshakeable.&#8217; And as President George W. Bush stated before the Israeli Knesset on May 15, 2008, on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, &#8216;The alliance between our governments is unbreakable, yet the source of our friend-ship runs deeper than any treaty&#8217;.</p></blockquote>
161. <p>Given the present situation, America&#8217;s unquestioning commitment to the demented Israeli regime is probably the most mischievous, damaging and idiotic piece of foreign policy ever devised in the history of the modern world. The UK has no reason for cuddling up to this evil love-in, and the smallest shred of decency should tell us to steer well clear. There are other much more palatable allies to be had.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-pure-evil-of-americas-qme-doctrine/">The Pure Evil of America’s QME Doctrine</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
165. </item>
166. <item>
167. <title>The Battery Belt: When the Sun Touches the Silk</title>
168. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-battery-belt-when-the-sun-touches-the-silk/</link>
170. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Zeeshan Nasir]]></dc:creator>
171. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 14:58:23 +0000</pubDate>
172. <category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
173. <category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
174. <category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
175. <category><![CDATA[India]]></category>
176. <category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
177. <category><![CDATA[BYD]]></category>
178. <category><![CDATA[CATL]]></category>
179. <category><![CDATA[Dynavolt]]></category>
180. <category><![CDATA[Gwadar]]></category>
181. <category><![CDATA[lithium-ion battery]]></category>
182. <category><![CDATA[Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation]]></category>
183. <category><![CDATA[Special Economic Zones]]></category>
184. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162638</guid>
185.  
186. <description><![CDATA[<p>Nako Dost Muhammad (image on left) had never heard the hum of a fan. Living in a village named Kolahu in Tump, a tehsil in district Kech tucked between dusty hills and near the edge of the Iranian border, Nako&#8217;s life has been cloaked in darkness. Since 2016, the electricity connections in their village had [&#8230;]</p>
187. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-battery-belt-when-the-sun-touches-the-silk/">The Battery Belt: When the Sun Touches the Silk</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
188. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nako-Dost-Muhammad.png"><img decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-162639" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nako-Dost-Muhammad-177x300.png" alt="" width="177" height="300" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nako-Dost-Muhammad-177x300.png 177w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nako-Dost-Muhammad.png 379w" sizes="(max-width: 177px) 100vw, 177px" /></a>Nako Dost Muhammad (image on left) had never heard the hum of a fan. Living in a village named Kolahu in Tump, a tehsil in district Kech tucked between dusty hills and near the edge of the Iranian border, Nako&#8217;s life has been cloaked in darkness.</p>
189. <p>Since 2016, the electricity connections in their village had been completely cut off, making them rely on the dim, choking flame of a kerosene lamp. He remembers a night when his grandson was bitten by a scorpion. There was no proper light to see where the creepy creature had gone, no decent transport to take the boy to a dispensary or a fan to stop them from sleeping on the floor. From the school in the village to the dispensary nearby, none had power.</p>
190. <p>Until last month, Nako recalls, when a solar-panel-laden Zamyad vehicle from Turbat arrived. A local contractor and three other people came with unfamiliar tools: a metal pole, a solar panel, a fan, wires and, intriguingly, a battery that had neither sulphuric acid nor distilled water in it, he says. He was told by the contractor that he was among the 40 recipients from the village to receive “a home solar solution” under a new provincial scheme from the <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="https://energy.balochistan.gov.pk/?p=1047">Energy Department of Balochistan</a></u></span>.</p>
191. <p>Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province in terms of area, remains the most energy deprived region. Almost 36 per cent of Balochistan is connected to the national grid and the connected ones receive erratic supply, according to a report presented in the <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="https://www.nation.com.pk/24-Sep-2021/64pc-area-of-balochistan-has-no-electricity">National Assembly of Pakistan</a></u></span>. Therefore, in this void, solar technology has been a boon. The <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="https://energy.balochistan.gov.pk/?p=1047">Energy Department of Balochistan</a></u></span> in collaboration with the People’s Republic of China is now providing home solar systems through a 15,000 solar home system grant aid by the <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="http://www.cidca.gov.cn/mobile.htm">China International Development Cooperation Agency</a></u></span> (CIDCA) and the <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="http://en.cidca.gov.cn/2018-08/20/c_264437.htm">South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund</a></u></span> (SSCACF). These include 250 Watts panels, wiring kits, charge controllers and critically lithium-ion batteries to store power to be utilised during night.</p>
192. <p><b>Lithium Solar Charge Controller</b></p>
193. <p>Nako didn’t know what a “lithium-ion battery” was, nor had he heard of  Guangdong, a Chinese province, stamped on the battery casing. What he knew about was a solar panel that caught sunlight, a battery that stored something invisible and that by the evening, his home &#8212; one mud house &#8212; would have two working lights and a fan to sleep just like in the city.</p>
194. <p>These lithium-ion batteries that are used to power electric scooters in Karachi or power up laptops and mobile phones in Lahore, are now providing electricity to the far away hamlets of Balochistan, often forgotten by the National power grid. From the fertile lands of Pishin district in the North to the draught-hit district of Gwadar in the South, these Chinese-made lithium-ion batteries, compact yet powerful, are converting sunlight into steady electricity in the night.</p>
195. <p><b>A Tale of two chemistries </b></p>
196. <p>“Lead acid batteries are the grandfather of energy storage invented in 1859,” Says Abdul Saboor, a chemistry professor in Atta Shad Degree college, Turbat. “They are cheap, recyclable and are locally manufactured by firms like Exide, Osaka and AGS. But they are heavy, require maintenance and give away 50 per cent of the charge stored in them. Unluckily, depending upon usage, their life span varies from 2 to five years.”</p>
197. <p>By contrast, he explains, lithium-ion batteries especially the Lithium-iron Phosphate variants are now the heart of solar systems, electric scooters, and backup power. They last longer, are lighter and discharge up to 90 to 95 per cent.</p>
198. <p>So what is the fine print?</p>
199. <p>“The cost”, says a consumer from Tump. “A 100Ah battery in the market costs Rs. 28,000 while a lithium-ion battery in that range would cost you Rs. 80,000.”</p>
200. <p>This expensive cost puts the lithium-ion batteries out of the reach of the middle class people. Another resident from Turbat confided in me that he purchased a lithium-ion battery in Gwadar &#8212; similar to the ones distributed under the provincial scheme &#8212; for Rs. 60,000, giving birth to a black market driven by high demand of the lithium-ion batteries and their quality.</p>
201. <p><b>Made in China: A Double-Edged Sword</b></p>
202. <p>Almost all, 90%, of the lithium-ion batteries in Pakistani markets are imported from China, with the remaining 10 per cent from United States and Bahrain. Brands like Dynavolt, CATL and BYD arrive through CPEC-linked logistics chains or local distributors from Karachi’s Saddar or Lahore’s Hall Road.</p>
203. <p>Between August 2023 to July 2024, Pakistan’s lithium-ion battery import from China stood at a staggering 710 shipments, according to <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="https://www.volza.com/p/lithium-ion-battery/import/import-in-pakistan/">Volza Pakistan’s Import data.</a></u></span> Reports from the Pakistan’s Customs and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics show that from the fiscal years of 2019 to 2024, the import money for lithium-ion batteries increased from $12 million to a jaw-dropping $49 million.</p>
204. <p>Another report by the <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="https://ieefa.org/resources/battery-storage-and-future-pakistans-electricity-grid">Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)</a></u></span>, shows the lithium-ion batteries import in 2024 in the country was totalled around 1.25 GWh and additionally 400 megawatt-hour( MWh) in the months of January and February of 2025 alone. This report also reiterates that if this current trend to solarize the country with solar-plus-battery installation continues, luckily, Pakistan’s 26 per cent of peak electricity demand would be met by 2030. For now, importing batteries from China is a blessing, but there is a cost to this convenience.</p>
205. <p>Pakistan currently lacks local manufacturing capacity for lithium-ion batteries. We have no lithium mining, no cell production capabilities and no infrastructure to recycle e-waste. Given that the world lithium supply chain is tense due to geopolitical rivalries, Pakistan’s entire dependency on a single supplier could cause trade shocks.</p>
206. <p>“Probably, there would be a continued import of lithium-ion batteries from China or passive assembly units in the days to come.” Expresses, Asumi Heibitan, an Electric Engineer graduate from Bahaudin Zakriya University, Multan. “ If there is a shift in export policy by Beijing, a shipping issue or a geopolitical service cut-off, Pakistan won’t have any alternative supplier.”</p>
207. <p>There would also be an issue of equity just beyond trade risks, Asumi warns. A 5kWh lithium-ion battery with solar panel and inverter would cost more than two lakh__ an unaffordable price for most of the low-income families. Though schemes like the Energy Department of Balochistan would make a dent, but many marginalised communities remain excluded to-date.</p>
208. <p>On a different aspect, The <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=http://www.engineeringpakistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/EV-New-Tech-Policy-060420.pdf&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjpm7_c1u6OAxUlgf0HHZp7EBsQFnoECBoQAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw0RojOCvL0DTYUGFckziIis">Electric Vehicles Policy 2020-2025</a></u></span> of Pakistan has also envisaged to turn 30 per cent of all the vehicles into EVs by 2030. BYD alone envisions to assemble EVs in Pakistan by mid-2026, but with a single lithium -ion battery ally and sky-rocketing prices of such batteries in the global market, Pakistan’s nascent dream of Electric Vehicles could collapse overnight.</p>
209. <p><b>Environmental Hazards</b></p>
210. <p>Pakistan also doesn’t have any formal lithium-ion recycling capacity, which means the end-of-life batteries &#8212; typically containing poisonous metals like cobalt, manganese, nickel and lithium salts &#8212; would end up in waste sites, weakening soil health and water contamination. Resultantly, Pakistan is going to be a dumping ground for e-waste, without policies on lithium waste management.</p>
211. <p>“We are sleepwalking to an e-waste crisis.” says Bahram Baloch, a student from BUITEMS, Quetta. “ It is like buying thousands of ships with no ship-breaking yards in sight.”</p>
212. <p>Unfortunately, none of the technical universities of the country, be it UET Lahore, BUITEMS in Quetta or NED University offer specialized courses on battery assembly, recycling and management. This educational gap would definitely force reliance on foreign Chinese or German consultants for large-scale energy projects.</p>
213. <p>Though geological surveys by the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC) also suggest the possible availability of lithium in the Chagai district in Balochistan and the Gilgit-Baltistan region, this would, definitely change Pakistan from a consumer to contributor but Chinese extraction models, local rights and environmental safety factors also remain fragile.</p>
214. <p><b>The way ahead and the continued import </b></p>
215. <p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/battery.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-162640" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/battery-300x208.png" alt="" width="300" height="208" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/battery-300x208.png 300w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/battery-768x532.png 768w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/battery.png 907w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>While the world advances to a more sophisticated green energy future, the continued import of Chinese-made lithium-ion batteries not merely becomes a trade practice but raises broader national policy questions: Should the country rely on this traditional imported green tech or start developing its own local manufacturing capacity? What if the these tens of thousands of installed lithium-ion batteries pile up on garbage heaps with no future disposal plans? Is it wise to build a green energy future with products that Pakistan doesn’t control?</p>
216. <p>Our neighbours and others have answers to offer. India, one of the importers of lithium-ion batteries is now heavily investing on <span style="color: #467886;"><u><a href="https://heavyindustries.gov.in/pli-scheme-national-programme-advanced-chemistry-cell-acc-battery-storage">its production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage</a></u></span>. It has also enacted the Battery Waste Management Rule of 2022 to manufacture and recycle lithium-ion batteries locally and to manage e-waste. Bangladesh is working with private companies to make lithium-iron phosphate batteries and even small African countries, for example, Rwanda is investing on such pilot projects while we are left behind a import-only paradigm, in spite of investing on incentives to localise, assemble and innovate.</p>
217. <p>A way for a safe and greener future requires coordinated developments on multiple fronts. First, the government ought to encourage local battery assembly units by offering tax incentives, cheap loans and technical trainings. This will not only create jobs for the locals but also reduce the dependency on imports. Simultaneously, bilateral agreement with China should go beyond trade, like joint technology developments on battery maintenance and assembly units in SEZs (Special Economic Zones) in Gwadar under CPEC. On the other hand, the Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies in collaboration with NADRA and provincial Energy Departments should start mapping lithium-ion battery installations nationwide so that they could forecast future replacement and predict as well as manage waste volumes.</p>
218. <p>While Public education on battery safety standards, life span and quality should be prioritize. We also need to diversify our import sources from South Korea, UAE and Japan to avoid any jerk from global lithium-ion battery supply.</p>
219. <p>Back in Tump, the days are getting hotter. Nako Dost Muhammad tells the visitors proudly that he doesn’t fear the nights. His grandson can now study at the ungodly hours of the night without a kerosene lamp and that his wife doesn’t need to cook before dusk.</p>
220. <p>But his fear about the battery started after a teacher in the village told him that these batteries catch fire in temperatures above 60 centigrade. He wonders how long that box with Chinese letters would last, since he has received no receipt, no warranty cards and no ways to replace it.</p>
221. <p>For now, the lithium in his battery has travelled a long way &#8212; perhaps from a mining site in Chile to a factory in Guangdong in China, to the Karachi port, and then to a village with bumpy roads long forgotten by the National grid.</p>
222. <p>Lithium-ion batteries are a good fit for a country which aspires for a green energy future and with unreliable electricity but the way Pakistan is using them now &#8212; only importing with no local assembly units is a real risk. We need to decide whether we only want to be consumers of foreign technology or a country that localises, manages and innovates their own green energy solutions. Only the future will tell.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-battery-belt-when-the-sun-touches-the-silk/">The Battery Belt: When the Sun Touches the Silk</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
226. </item>
227. <item>
228. <title>Beneath</title>
229. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/beneath/</link>
231. <dc:creator><![CDATA[J.S. O’Keefe]]></dc:creator>
232. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 14:55:44 +0000</pubDate>
233. <category><![CDATA[Anti-slavery]]></category>
234. <category><![CDATA[Fiction]]></category>
235. <category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
236. <category><![CDATA[Freedom]]></category>
237. <category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
238. <category><![CDATA[ancient stones]]></category>
239. <category><![CDATA[endless wars]]></category>
240. <category><![CDATA[finance feudalism]]></category>
241. <category><![CDATA[high margins]]></category>
242. <category><![CDATA[secrets]]></category>
243. <category><![CDATA[tunnel]]></category>
244. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162624</guid>
245.  
246. <description><![CDATA[<p>Beneath the town’s ancient stones, there is a tunnel holding secrets &#8211; ideas probably deemed outdated and, quite possibly, against the law. But superstitions and legends survive, morph into daydreams, false hopes. The universe weighs heavy on man’s heart. deep under the feet of upright folks the old tunnel coils dark and bold We descend [&#8230;]</p>
247. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/beneath/">Beneath</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
248. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Beneath the town’s ancient stones, there is a tunnel holding secrets &#8211; ideas probably deemed outdated and, quite possibly, against the law. But superstitions and legends survive, morph into daydreams, false hopes. The universe weighs heavy on man’s heart.</p>
249. <p>deep under the feet of upright folks<br />
250. the old tunnel coils dark and bold</p>
251. <p>We descend gingerly feeling our steps, lured by the siren calls of mystery. Carved on the tunnel walls are messages from the past, some religious, others are misquotes from wayward philosophers. A few simple notes, too. One stands out written in large white letters: STAY HERE. BE FREE.</p>
252. <p>stay in here stay in the dark<br />
253. don’t go back to blinding light<br />
254. freedom found is slavery lost<br />
255. leave the old life in the dust</p>
256. <p>Not an option. We have to return to the surface world of finance feudalism, endless wars, high margins and lean lunches. Time to turn it around. Going to take a great deal of collective effort and probably several decades but… it’s our destiny.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/beneath/">Beneath</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
260. </item>
261. <item>
262. <title>Toxic Stew: Chemicals, Poisons, Sprays, Nanoparticles, VOCs, PFAS&#8217;s and the Evil Monsters Cooking up this Brew</title>
263. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/toxic-stew-chemicals-poisons-sprays-nanoparticles-vocs-pfass-and-the-evil-monsters-cooking-up-this-brew/</link>
265. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Paul Haeder]]></dc:creator>
266. <pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2025 15:03:34 +0000</pubDate>
267. <category><![CDATA[Advertising/Marketing]]></category>
268. <category><![CDATA[Cambodia]]></category>
269. <category><![CDATA[Colonialism]]></category>
270. <category><![CDATA[Ecology]]></category>
271. <category><![CDATA[Empire]]></category>
272. <category><![CDATA[Global Inequality]]></category>
273. <category><![CDATA[Korea]]></category>
274. <category><![CDATA[Laos]]></category>
275. <category><![CDATA[Pesticides]]></category>
276. <category><![CDATA[Pollution]]></category>
277. <category><![CDATA[Viet Nam]]></category>
278. <category><![CDATA[Water]]></category>
279. <category><![CDATA[Agent Orange]]></category>
280. <category><![CDATA[chemicals and capitalism]]></category>
281. <category><![CDATA[Nguyen Kim Phuong]]></category>
282. <category><![CDATA[soft power post 1975 Vietnam]]></category>
283. <category><![CDATA[Tr?n T? Nga]]></category>
284. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162595</guid>
285.  
286. <description><![CDATA[<p>Listen to my interview here: Carol Van Strum on Haeder&#8217;s Finding Fringe. If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed whether by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no [&#8230;]</p>
287. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/toxic-stew-chemicals-poisons-sprays-nanoparticles-vocs-pfass-and-the-evil-monsters-cooking-up-this-brew/">Toxic Stew: Chemicals, Poisons, Sprays, Nanoparticles, VOCs, PFAS’s and the Evil Monsters Cooking up this Brew</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
288. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-gap-16 pc-reset">
289. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
290. <div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-24-jnGwiv font-pub-headings-FE5byy size-17-JHHggF weight-regular-mUq6Gb reset-IxiVJZ subtitle-HEEcLo" dir="auto"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="https://kyaq.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/KYAQ-Logo-cropped2-W.jpg" alt="KYAQ Schedule -" width="250" height="118" /></div>
291. </div>
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293. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">Listen to my <a href="https://kyaq.org/finding-fringe/">interview here</a>:<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sS0obVu3FiT6HsqvhQ__IhU5g46CwB-G/view?usp=sharing"> Carol Van Strum on Haeder&#8217;s Finding Fringe.</a></div>
294. </div>
295. </div>
296. <div class="postContentWrapper-MYe7fH">
297. <div class="available-content">
298. <div class="body markup" dir="auto">
299. <div class="captioned-image-container">
300. <figure>
301. <div class="image2-inset">
302. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="Toxic Avenger" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qphe!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F32da8d06-fc9d-4f54-8225-38f175f8505f_1200x802.jpeg" alt="Toxic Avenger" width="404" height="270" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/32da8d06-fc9d-4f54-8225-38f175f8505f_1200x802.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:802,&quot;width&quot;:1200,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Toxic Avenger&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
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305. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
306. </div>
307. </div>
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309. </figure>
310. </div>
311. <blockquote><p>If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed whether by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem. — Rachel Carson, author of <em>Silent Spring</em></p></blockquote>
312. <p>Simple stuff: I interviewed Carol Van Strum for my radio show, <em>Finding Fringe</em>, ahead of its airing, Dec. 24, so I could give listeners a bit of reality here on the coast and in the world at large. She will be at the Yachats Commons (Oregon) Nov. 15 for the screening of the flick, <em>The People vs. Agent Orange.</em></p>
313. <div class="captioned-image-container">
314. <figure>
315. <div class="image2-inset">
316. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="May be an image of text that says 'THE PEOPLE VS AGENT ORANGE &quot;The People vs. Agent Orange, which masterfully captures this ongoing damage, should renew a debate about the use of these chemicals.&quot; -JASPER CRAVEN, THE NEW REPUBLIC Free showing at the Tillamook Library Saturday, November 8 at 1pm Doors open at 12:30pm Bitter Fog ferbicides CHunar Human Rights Presented by: North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection www.healthywatershed.org Carol Van. Strum ជ៉ង្ស្លមា្ម្មាយយោមពិជិត្ម Q&amp;A with Author Activist Carol Van Strum &amp; Susan Swift Following the film WE HAVE THE RIGHT to PROTECT OURSELVES FROM BEING POISONED'" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3FWK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5e54b7e3-223e-4500-bd11-1bfbc96cd07c_506x640.jpeg" alt="May be an image of text that says 'THE PEOPLE VS AGENT ORANGE &quot;The People vs. Agent Orange, which masterfully captures this ongoing damage, should renew a debate about the use of these chemicals.&quot; -JASPER CRAVEN, THE NEW REPUBLIC Free showing at the Tillamook Library Saturday, November 8 at 1pm Doors open at 12:30pm Bitter Fog ferbicides CHunar Human Rights Presented by: North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection www.healthywatershed.org Carol Van. Strum ជ៉ង្ស្លមា្ម្មាយយោមពិជិត្ម Q&amp;A with Author Activist Carol Van Strum &amp; Susan Swift Following the film WE HAVE THE RIGHT to PROTECT OURSELVES FROM BEING POISONED'" width="412" height="522" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/5e54b7e3-223e-4500-bd11-1bfbc96cd07c_506x640.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:640,&quot;width&quot;:506,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;May be an image of text that says 'THE PEOPLE VS AGENT ORANGE \&quot;The People vs. Agent Orange, which masterfully captures this ongoing damage, should renew a debate about the use of these chemicals.\&quot; -JASPER CRAVEN, THE NEW REPUBLIC Free showing at the Tillamook Library Saturday, November 8 at 1pm Doors open at 12:30pm Bitter Fog ferbicides CHunar Human Rights Presented by: North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection www.healthywatershed.org Carol Van. Strum ជ៉ង្ស្លមា្ម្មាយយោមពិជិត្ម Q&amp;A with Author Activist Carol Van Strum &amp; Susan Swift Following the film WE HAVE THE RIGHT to PROTECT OURSELVES FROM BEING POISONED'&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
317. <div class="image-link-expand">
318. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
319. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
320. </div>
321. </div>
322. </div>
323. </figure>
324. </div>
325. <p>We talked about the state of the state of the world, too, and the reality that this is not just a Trump thing, that the poisons in our bodies vis-a-vis air, food, water, airwaves have been pushed into us by Capitalists, by the dirty people we call scientists and technologists and engineers.</p>
326. <p>Operation Ranch Hand — 20 million gallons of Agent Orange dumped into an area the size of Mass., and that means, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Birth defects, and even epigenetic issues two generations later.</p>
327. <p>Daddy got sprayed (USA daddy), and then raised that family, had kiddos, and, bam, surprise surprise — spina bifida, hormone imbalances, diseases, diabetes, you know it, thanks Dow and Hercules and the other chemical companies.</p>
328. <div class="captioned-image-container">
329. <figure>
330. <div class="image2-inset">
331. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="A woman with profound physical and mental disabilities attributed to Agent Orange is pictured on October 5, 2009, in Cam Tuyen, Vietnam. (Photo by David Guttenfelder/AP)" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ugyf!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F15e73a1b-ba81-45d9-80b5-b39a38bc2063_1686x1131.jpeg" alt="A woman with profound physical and mental disabilities attributed to Agent Orange is pictured on October 5, 2009, in Cam Tuyen, Vietnam. (Photo by David Guttenfelder/AP)" width="394" height="264" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/15e73a1b-ba81-45d9-80b5-b39a38bc2063_1686x1131.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:977,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;A woman with profound physical and mental disabilities attributed to Agent Orange is pictured on October 5, 2009, in Cam Tuyen, Vietnam. (Photo by David Guttenfelder/AP)&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
332. <div class="image-link-expand">
333. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
334. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
335. </div>
336. </div>
337. </div>
338. </figure>
339. </div>
340. <p>The effects remain one of the most contentious legacies of the Vietnam War. This report focuses on the hardships faced by Vietnamese people living with Agent Orange–related health problems and disabilities and suggests ways the US and Vietnamese governments can better address the legacy of Agent Orange to provide support to individuals and families, and to strengthen bilateral relations.</p>
341. <div class="captioned-image-container">
342. <figure>
343. <div class="image2-inset">
344. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="Agent Orange Victims: Haunting Photos Of The Unpunished War Crimes Of U.S. In Vietnam War" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nm5Z!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbccef72f-5ae6-4b92-b784-94a1232b189e_1021x643.jpeg" alt="Agent Orange Victims: Haunting Photos Of The Unpunished War Crimes Of U.S. In Vietnam War" width="384" height="242" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/bccef72f-5ae6-4b92-b784-94a1232b189e_1021x643.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:643,&quot;width&quot;:1021,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Agent Orange Victims: Haunting Photos Of The Unpunished War Crimes Of U.S. In Vietnam War&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
345. <div class="image-link-expand">
346. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
347. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
348. </div>
349. </div>
350. </div>
351. </figure>
352. </div>
353. <p>Read the report: It’s only 28 pages: <a href="http://file///C:/Users/irish/Downloads/sr-522_agent-orange-victims-vietnam-their-numbers-experiences-needs-sources-support.pdf" rel="">Agent Orange Victims in Vietnam: Their Numbers, Experiences, Needs, and Sources of Support</a> By Phan Xuân Dũng</p>
354. <p>Not a great image:</p>
355. <div class="captioned-image-container">
356. <figure>
357. <div class="image2-inset">
358. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oTyy!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf75d331-14f5-467e-8d72-8297cdcd9cc7_1447x717.png" alt="" width="438" height="217" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/cf75d331-14f5-467e-8d72-8297cdcd9cc7_1447x717.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:717,&quot;width&quot;:1447,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1065474,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://paulokirk.substack.com/i/177270392?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf75d331-14f5-467e-8d72-8297cdcd9cc7_1447x717.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
359. <div class="image-link-expand">
360. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
361. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
362. </div>
363. </div>
364. </div>
365. </figure>
366. </div>
367. <p>Summary</p>
368. <ul>
369. <li>US-Vietnam cooperation in addressing the consequences of the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War has achieved remarkable progress, but much remains to be done to assist and reconcile with the multiple generations of Vietnamese affected.</li>
370. <li>Assistance for Agent Orange victims in Vietnam is provided by multiple international and nongovernmental actors. As of 2023, the US Congress has allocated more than $139 million for health and disability programs in eight provinces heavily sprayed with Agent Orange. These programs receive mostly positive feedback from participants, despite their limited scope.</li>
371. <li>The Vietnamese government supports people affected by Agent Orange through general disability assistance and preferential treatment for those who participated in the war. However, this support does not meet the needs of all families and is not available to some subsets of victims.</li>
372. <li>To better address the health and disability effects of Agent Orange, Vietnam should develop a single preferential policy that applies to all cases and better inform international partners and donors. US policymakers should increase funding for and expand the scope of health and disability services, including livelihood and psychological support for affected people.</li>
373. </ul>
374. <p>About the Report</p>
375. <p>This report examines the experiences of Vietnamese people affected by Agent Orange and other herbicides used by the US military during the Vietnam War and the assistance that has been provided to them by Vietnam and the United States. The report is based on the author’s document-based research and interviews with Vietnamese people affected by Agent Orange and representatives of agencies and organizations that provide assistance. Research was supported by the Southeast Asia program at the United States Institute of Peace.</p>
376. <div class="captioned-image-container">
377. <figure>
378. <div class="image2-inset">
379. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="May be a graphic of helicopter and text that says 'YachatsCommons Yachats Commons Saturday,1 15 November Satur day, 2 pm ree event Film followed by discussion with author BitterFog, Fog, Bitter Carol CarolVanStrum VanStrum WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTECT OURSELVES FROM BEING POISONED. THE PEOPLE VS. AGENT ORANGE &quot;EVERYTHING A GREAT ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARY SHOULD BE.&quot; Sponsored by the Oregon SponsoredbytheOregonSieraClub Sierra Club'" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wwLc!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ca13558-1d25-48ed-9164-66a647e8770c_694x540.jpeg" alt="May be a graphic of helicopter and text that says 'YachatsCommons Yachats Commons Saturday,1 15 November Satur day, 2 pm ree event Film followed by discussion with author BitterFog, Fog, Bitter Carol CarolVanStrum VanStrum WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTECT OURSELVES FROM BEING POISONED. THE PEOPLE VS. AGENT ORANGE &quot;EVERYTHING A GREAT ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARY SHOULD BE.&quot; Sponsored by the Oregon SponsoredbytheOregonSieraClub Sierra Club'" width="415" height="323" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2ca13558-1d25-48ed-9164-66a647e8770c_694x540.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:540,&quot;width&quot;:694,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;May be a graphic of helicopter and text that says 'YachatsCommons Yachats Commons Saturday,1 15 November Satur day, 2 pm ree event Film followed by discussion with author BitterFog, Fog, Bitter Carol CarolVanStrum VanStrum WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTECT OURSELVES FROM BEING POISONED. THE PEOPLE VS. AGENT ORANGE \&quot;EVERYTHING A GREAT ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARY SHOULD BE.\&quot; Sponsored by the Oregon SponsoredbytheOregonSieraClub Sierra Club'&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
380. <div class="image-link-expand">
381. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
382. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
383. </div>
384. </div>
385. </div>
386. </figure>
387. </div>
388. <div class="captioned-image-container">
389. <figure>
390. <div class="image2-inset">
391. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="Portraits of Jordan and Carol" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4RiB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3228c0de-3c05-4ca6-a37a-ba4ff34ec0ad_1200x859.jpeg" alt="Portraits of Jordan and Carol" width="431" height="309" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/3228c0de-3c05-4ca6-a37a-ba4ff34ec0ad_1200x859.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:859,&quot;width&quot;:1200,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Portraits of Jordan and Carol&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
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394. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
395. </div>
396. </div>
397. </div>
398. </figure>
399. </div>
400. <div data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2021_19/3471532/210510-agent-orange-mc-1134_dd8654b4b1574b92b12a3d6583cdb967.fit-1240w.jpg&quot;}" data-component-name="AssetErrorToDOM"></div>
401. <p>It is an odd world, where we murdered brown people in Vietnam, and now we are buddies? We have murdered Cubans in the millions and Venezuelans and, it will be more of the same in those countries that end in “a” in South and Central AMerica == Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and then the “e” and “u” of our country’s madness = Peru, Chile, and the “l” of it — Brazil!</p>
402. <p><strong>Chapter Excerpt</strong></p>
403. <p>From Cold War enemies to partners, the United States and Vietnam have come a long way in restoring and fostering bilateral relations since normalization in 1995. However, the path toward rapprochement was not easy. It was an arduous process for those involved, ridden with a myriad of sensitive subjects, among which were the environmental and health consequences of the Agent Orange herbicide used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Even after re-establishing formal diplomatic relations, the two countries failed to reach a common ground on the issue. During the stalemate, in 2002, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam called Agent Orange the “one significant ghost” of the war that hindered complete reconciliation. Not until 2007 did the United States and Vietnam finally agree to jointly address this war legacy.</p>
404. <p>This paper unpacks the U.S.’ response to the Agent Orange fallout, an overlooked or less emphasized aspect of the warming U.S.-Vietnam bilateral ties that carries significant symbolic, political, legal, and humanitarian implications. The paper answers the following questions: What are the harmful effects of this chemical substance? Who are the victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam? How is Washington assisting Hanoi with mitigation efforts? How should U.S. assistance be con- ceptualized, and what is the rationale for the current approach? Why did the United States change tack after so many years of intransigence? Most importantly, what do the victims need and what more can the United States do to promote reconciliation with the Vietnamese whose lives have been debilitated by the toxic herbicide?</p>
405. <p>After providing an overview of the Agent Orange legacy in Vietnam, this paper elucidates the research’s theoretical underpinnings, which revolve around the concept of reparative justice. Subsequently, the paper examines the material and symbolic component of U.S. policies toward the issue of Agent Orange in Vietnam. Regarding material redress, there is no direct compensation or reparations. Instead, the U.S. Congress provides annual funds for environmental remediation projects and health programs to assist persons with disabilities living in areas sprayed with the herbicide. In terms of symbolic justice, Washington has not accepted culpability for the use of toxic defoliants. U.S. leaders avoid drawing causation between Agent Orange and the health effects seen in Vietnam but implicitly acknowledge this through their statements and actions. This ex-gratia approach allows Washington to evade the domestic political costs while securing strategic gains through improved bilateral relations with the Southeast Asian country. The paper argues that initiatives by a transnational network of victims’ supporters, including NGOs and American state actors, helped end the deadlock in bilateral negotiations and prompted American assistance. In the final section, the paper explores the perspective of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims and offers some policy recommendations for the United States. The paper underlines the need for a more victim-centered response, which will build long-term trust and confidence between the two countries and promote a more genuine relationship between the United States and the victims.</p>
406. <div class="captioned-image-container">
407. <figure>
408. <div class="image2-inset">
409. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="Agent Orange Record | Vietnam war, Vietnam, Vietnam war photos" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Zt57!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff4b3a218-6714-4fd7-b3e2-3f7e9cbd7b4c_419x652.gif" alt="Agent Orange Record | Vietnam war, Vietnam, Vietnam war photos" width="399" height="621" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f4b3a218-6714-4fd7-b3e2-3f7e9cbd7b4c_419x652.gif&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:652,&quot;width&quot;:419,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Agent Orange Record | Vietnam war, Vietnam, Vietnam war photos&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
410. <div class="image-link-expand">
411. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
412. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
413. </div>
414. </div>
415. </div>
416. </figure>
417. </div>
418. <div class="captioned-image-container">
419. <figure>
420. <div class="image2-inset">
421. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CPzY!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4453eeb3-8f79-4449-8edd-e8339557cb62_690x452.png" alt="" width="437" height="287" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/4453eeb3-8f79-4449-8edd-e8339557cb62_690x452.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:452,&quot;width&quot;:690,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:479371,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://paulokirk.substack.com/i/177270392?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4453eeb3-8f79-4449-8edd-e8339557cb62_690x452.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
422. <div class="image-link-expand">
423. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
424. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
425. </div>
426. </div>
427. </div>
428. </figure>
429. </div>
430. <p>&nbsp;</p>
431. <p>Both pieces on Carol Van Strum ended up in<em> Dissident Voice</em>: <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/12/chilean-embraces-environmental-ethos-on-oregon-coast/" rel="">here </a>and <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/03/a-real-life-toxic-avenger/" rel="">here</a>. I even did a review of that documentary, <em>The People VS Agent Orange</em>, which highlights Tran To Nga‘s fight in France — “<a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/10/eternal-impunity-of-capitalisms-crimes/" rel="">Eternal Impunity of Capitalism’s Crimes</a>“. Here’s one passage from that story I wrote:</p>
432. <blockquote><p>Dr. James Clary was with the Air Force in Vietnam, which ran the program. He was ordered to dump the computer and erase all memory. Instead, he printed out a stack of documents two feet high – missions, sorties, coordinates, dates, gallons dropped throughout all of Southeast Asia and Laos.</p>
433. <p>“We had the information coming from Dow that there were real problems for people associated with this chemical. It was all locked up for 35 years.”</p>
434. <p>Playing down all the negative effects of this chemical was part of the Dow plan. Dioxin was the byproduct in the brew. Dow told the US government they were having difficulty producing the volume of the chemical the US wanted. The government told them to not worry about safety standards and quality control, and that a fast production process which produced more of the dioxin would not matter, since the crops and forest were being sprayed, and if people got in contact with it, the idea coming from both industrialists at Dow and those in government and the military was, “Hey, so what, this is a war . . . these are the effing Vietnamese.”</p>
435. <p>However, a former military man like Clary never saw it that way. He reiterated that 20 million gallons of it was dumped on Southeast Asia. The Ranch Hand program stopped in 1971, but then the chemicals were enlisted by the US on forest land – clear cuts that were sprayed to denude the razed land of any opportunistic weeds and shrubs. The money has to be made, and the stockpiled product has to go! Sell it to the state forestry department and timber outfits.</p></blockquote>
436. <div class="captioned-image-container">
437. <figure>
438. <div class="image2-inset">
439. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!72IF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8f4e464d-b8bf-4fcc-abcf-05cc28846a11_300x203.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="203" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8f4e464d-b8bf-4fcc-abcf-05cc28846a11_300x203.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:203,&quot;width&quot;:300,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
440. <div></div>
441. </div>
442. </figure>
443. </div>
444. <p>Trần Tố Nga, pictured at her home in Evry, France, on May 10, 2021, sued 14 chemical companies that produced and sold Agent Orange to the US military during the Vietnam War. Although her suit was dismissed by a French court, her campaign raised awareness of Agent Orange victims.</p>
445. <div class="captioned-image-container">
446. <figure>
447. <div class="image2-inset">
448. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nh8N!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98afb313-3d3c-4171-9379-04e9a3a22a9f_461x459.png" alt="" width="407" height="405" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/98afb313-3d3c-4171-9379-04e9a3a22a9f_461x459.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:459,&quot;width&quot;:461,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:303319,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://paulokirk.substack.com/i/177270392?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F98afb313-3d3c-4171-9379-04e9a3a22a9f_461x459.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
449. <div class="image-link-expand">
450. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
451. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
452. </div>
453. </div>
454. </div>
455. </figure>
456. </div>
457. <div class="captioned-image-container">
458. <figure>
459. <div class="image2-inset">
460. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!bRNZ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb0b845f9-fabf-43c0-958f-97d54a5faacf_695x336.png" alt="" width="443" height="214" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b0b845f9-fabf-43c0-958f-97d54a5faacf_695x336.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:336,&quot;width&quot;:695,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:66116,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://paulokirk.substack.com/i/177270392?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb0b845f9-fabf-43c0-958f-97d54a5faacf_695x336.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
461. <div class="image-link-expand">
462. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
463. <div></div>
464. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image" style="text-align: center;">Oregon!</div>
465. </div>
466. </div>
467. </div>
468. </figure>
469. </div>
470. <div class="captioned-image-container">
471. <figure>
472. <div class="image2-inset">
473. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="A bird's-eye view of Oregon's clear-cuts | Street Roots" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ak4X!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa0108979-ffdf-401e-a066-bb55bb5f931e_1024x768.jpeg" alt="A bird's-eye view of Oregon's clear-cuts | Street Roots" width="379" height="285" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a0108979-ffdf-401e-a066-bb55bb5f931e_1024x768.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:768,&quot;width&quot;:1024,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;A bird's-eye view of Oregon's clear-cuts | Street Roots&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
474. <div class="image-link-expand">
475. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
476. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
477. </div>
478. </div>
479. </div>
480. </figure>
481. </div>
482. <div class="captioned-image-container">
483. <figure>
484. <div class="image2-inset">
485. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ph0T!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc872a474-96de-42b2-a736-589cb2947383_768x754.png" alt="" width="439" height="432" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c872a474-96de-42b2-a736-589cb2947383_768x754.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:754,&quot;width&quot;:768,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:43524,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://paulokirk.substack.com/i/177270392?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc872a474-96de-42b2-a736-589cb2947383_768x754.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
486. <div class="image-link-expand">
487. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
488. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
489. </div>
490. </div>
491. </div>
492. </figure>
493. </div>
494. <blockquote><p>“It’s like a sign that says ‘Dig Here’ and they’re not digging,” said Dr. David Ozonoff, a professor of environmental health at Boston University and co-editor-in-chief of the online journal Environmental Health, after reviewing ProPublica’s findings. “It raises questions about whether they want to know the answer or are just hoping the problem will naturally go away as the veterans die off.”</p></blockquote>
495. <p>Joel Michalek, co-author of a major Air Force study into Agent Orange exposure and birth defects, said ProPublica’s analysis suggests the issue should be revisited. In the 1980s, he and his team found a higher rate of post-war birth defects in the children of veterans who handled Agent Orange than in the children of those who didn’t, but they later concluded that herbicide exposure was not the cause.</p>
496. <blockquote><p>“You see parallel patterns of what we saw back then,” said Michalek, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. “That, to me, is a signal.”</p></blockquote>
497. <div class="captioned-image-container">
498. <figure>
499. <div class="image2-inset">
500. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="Rights of Nature | CELDF | Championing Nature &amp; Communities" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!MZI3!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F47ae734c-46ef-4ca9-ab13-121e59c5d678_700x394.jpeg" alt="Rights of Nature | CELDF | Championing Nature &amp; Communities" width="449" height="253" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/47ae734c-46ef-4ca9-ab13-121e59c5d678_700x394.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:394,&quot;width&quot;:700,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Rights of Nature | CELDF | Championing Nature &amp; Communities&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
501. <div class="image-link-expand">
502. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
503. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
504. </div>
505. </div>
506. </div>
507. </figure>
508. </div>
509. <div class="captioned-image-container">
510. <figure>
511. <div class="image2-inset">
512. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" title="image734" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!H_mG!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc73fb5f4-aaff-4636-b51b-d88abc46c793_1240x467.jpeg" alt="image734" width="448" height="169" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c73fb5f4-aaff-4636-b51b-d88abc46c793_1240x467.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:467,&quot;width&quot;:1240,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;image734&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
513. <div class="image-link-expand">
514. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
515. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
516. </div>
517. </div>
518. </div>
519. </figure>
520. </div>
521. <div class="captioned-image-container">
522. <figure>
523. <div class="image2-inset">
524. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="Sorry We Ruined Your Lives,” Monsanto Says With Cash - Hobby Farms" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6uHk!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff73befe0-389c-49fe-9a56-4ff4af200a05_800x658" alt="Sorry We Ruined Your Lives,” Monsanto Says With Cash - Hobby Farms" width="391" height="322" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f73befe0-389c-49fe-9a56-4ff4af200a05_800x658&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:658,&quot;width&quot;:800,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Sorry We Ruined Your Lives,” Monsanto Says With Cash - Hobby Farms&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
525. <div class="image-link-expand">
526. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
527. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
528. </div>
529. </div>
530. </div>
531. </figure>
532. </div>
533. <p>And so Vietnam is being recolonized by the Poison Manufacturers:</p>
534. <blockquote><p>“Monsanto today, and for the last decade, has been focused solely on agriculture,” Charla Lord, a spokesperson for the company, said when asked to comment on the company’s past history in the country. “But we share a name with a company that dates back to 1901. The former Monsanto was involved in a wide variety of businesses including the manufacture of Agent Orange for the U.S. government. … The U.S. courts have determined that the contractors who manufactured Agent Orange for the government are not responsible for damage claims associated with the military use of Agent Orange because the manufacturers were government contractors carrying out the instructions of government.”</p>
535. <p>The U.S. government has also issued statements backing away from responsibility for deaths and devastation in Vietnam. Instead it acknowledges a number of dire conditions, diseases and fatalities as “<a href="http://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/claims-postservice-agent_orange.asp" rel="">presumed</a>” to be associated with Agent Orange exposure in its own veterans.</p></blockquote>
536. <div class="captioned-image-container">
537. <figure>
538. <div class="image2-inset">
539. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="55 Years After Agent Orange Was Used In Vietnam, One Of Its Creators Is Thriving Here - NOEMA" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wAxV!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F61f82299-6f35-428e-a0a8-4730b97748ad_970x637.jpeg" alt="55 Years After Agent Orange Was Used In Vietnam, One Of Its Creators Is Thriving Here - NOEMA" width="447" height="293" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/61f82299-6f35-428e-a0a8-4730b97748ad_970x637.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:637,&quot;width&quot;:970,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;55 Years After Agent Orange Was Used In Vietnam, One Of Its Creators Is Thriving Here - NOEMA&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
540. <div class="image-link-expand">
541. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
542. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
543. </div>
544. </div>
545. </div>
546. </figure>
547. </div>
548. <blockquote><p>Some 69 miles northeast of Ho Chi Minh City in Dong Nai province, Nguyen Hong Lam and his generation of Vietnamese farmers associate Monsanto with its parties and its genetically modified seeds, rather than the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange" rel="">Agent Orange</a> attacks that they lived through. According to Lam, the parties, more officially known as launch events hosted by Monsanto, were held between 2012 and 2014, in line with the launch of Monsanto’s genetically modified crops in Vietnam. While Lam doesn’t affiliate Agent Orange with Monsanto, he does know the feeling of community that Monsanto created.</p>
549. <p>“There were parties that lasted even three days,” he said of the events, which were meant as promotional outreach to farmers. “Dozens of tents would be put up right in the fields to accommodate up to 400 farmers. They were always as much fun as wedding parties.”</p>
550. <p>Monsanto gatherings such as these were not uncommon here, especially with the company aiming to increase its contact with farmers around the country</p>
551. <p>“We do hundreds of these [launch] events in the field. Seeing is believing. Their livelihood depends on that,” Narasimham Upadyayula, CEO of <a href="http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/pages/vietnam.aspx" rel="">Monsanto’s subsidiary Dekalb Vietnam</a>, which is fully owned and operated by Monsanto, said. “We gave them a vision.”</p></blockquote>
552. <p>All it takes is that soft Edward Bernays mind killing POWER of AmeriKKKa:</p>
553. <div class="captioned-image-container">
554. <figure>
555. <div class="image2-inset">
556. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QbZB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f78fc-7697-4386-b22d-818a7d4fd73f_573x385.png" alt="" width="409" height="275" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/651f78fc-7697-4386-b22d-818a7d4fd73f_573x385.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:385,&quot;width&quot;:573,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:345640,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://paulokirk.substack.com/i/177270392?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f78fc-7697-4386-b22d-818a7d4fd73f_573x385.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
557. <div class="image-link-expand">
558. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
559. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
560. </div>
561. </div>
562. </div>
563. </figure>
564. </div>
565. <p>The Americanization and what it ushers in, including the expansion of companies like biotech giant Monsanto, risks burying the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange" rel="">history of Agent Orange</a>.</p>
566. <div class="captioned-image-container">
567. <figure>
568. <div class="image2-inset">
569. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!FFm7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe2af6f67-4c08-4929-bc65-834f44c4ae26_900x1125.jpeg" alt="" width="380" height="475" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e2af6f67-4c08-4929-bc65-834f44c4ae26_900x1125.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1125,&quot;width&quot;:900,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
570. <div class="image-link-expand">
571. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
572. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
573. </div>
574. </div>
575. </div><figcaption class="image-caption"><em>[Mike Ryan keeps a memorial in his living room for his daughter Kerry, who was born with myriad health problems. Ryan believes he was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot)]</em></figcaption></figure>
576. </div>
577. <blockquote><p>When the lawsuit <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/08/nyregion/veterans-accept-180-million-pact-on-agent-orange.html?pagewanted=all" rel="">settled in 1984 for $180 million</a>, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein <a href="http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/611/1396/2003333/" rel="">ruled that direct payments</a> could only be made to disabled veterans or survivors of those who’d died, cutting off children like Kerry.</p>
578. <p>Weinstein, who’d expressed doubt that veterans had been harmed, was even more skeptical about their children, writing, “however slight the suggestion of a causal connection between the veterans’ medical problems and Agent Orange exposure, even less evidence supports the existence of an association between birth defects … and exposure of the father to Agent Orange.”</p>
579. <p>Mike Ryan wasn’t surprised. “I knew we had no shot,” he said.</p>
580. <p>In 1997, when the VA <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1997-09-30/pdf/97-25664.pdf" rel="">finally began offering compensation</a> for children with spina bifida, the Ryans didn’t bother applying. Mike Ryan said it was never about the money; it was about recognition of the debt he believes his country owes his daughter kERRY. “She has 22 birth defects, and they want to pay only for spina bifida? Come on, give me a break.”</p>
581. <p>Kerry <a href="http://www.newsday.com/opinion/the-loss-of-kerry-ryan-1.697951" rel="">died in 2006 at the age of 35</a>.</p>
582. <p>Mike Ryan, now 71, said he hadn’t kept up with scientific advancements that potentially confirm what he’s spent years arguing — that a father’s exposure to toxins can cause health problems in offspring. In the end, it won’t matter what researchers discover, he insisted.</p>
583. <p>“They will never admit it,” he said, “because if they do, then America is admitting to drafting the unborn.”</p></blockquote>
584. <div class="captioned-image-container">
585. <figure>
586. <div class="image2-inset">
587. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!94sW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faa9f00ad-1dc7-4de0-a1f2-95c489b1bdee_900x551.jpeg" alt="" width="417" height="255" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/aa9f00ad-1dc7-4de0-a1f2-95c489b1bdee_900x551.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:551,&quot;width&quot;:900,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
588. <div class="image-link-expand">
589. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
590. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
591. </div>
592. </div>
593. </div>
594. </figure>
595. </div>
596. <p><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-children-of-agent-orange" rel="">The Children of Agent Orange</a></p>
597. <div class="pullquote">
598. <p>For decades, Vietnam veterans have suspected that the defoliant harmed their children. But the VA hasn’t studied its own data for clues.</p>
599. <p>A new ProPublica analysis has found that the odds of having a child born with birth defects were more than a third higher for veterans exposed to Agent Orange than for those who weren’t.</p>
600. </div>
601. <blockquote><p>‘If we are overly accommodating, we will inevitably surrender our culture.’<strong> Nguyen Kim Phuong</strong></p>
602. <p>&nbsp;</p></blockquote>
603. <div class="captioned-image-container">
604. <figure>
605. <div class="image2-inset">
606. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="9781903998410: Seeds of Deception" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!v7VO!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe8103aaf-c0e8-42f5-bd5e-0408c4fcfe61_335x500.jpeg" alt="9781903998410: Seeds of Deception" width="318" height="475" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e8103aaf-c0e8-42f5-bd5e-0408c4fcfe61_335x500.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:500,&quot;width&quot;:335,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;9781903998410: Seeds of Deception&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
607. </div>
608. </figure>
609. </div>
610. <p>The U.S.’s lobbying efforts have been well-received.</p>
611. <blockquote><p><a href="http://seedsofdeception.com/about-jeffrey/" rel="">Jeffrey Smith</a>, author of the best-selling book “Seeds of Deception,” minced no words in <a href="http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/in-vietnam-genetically-modified-organisms-find-fertile-ground-to-grow-23941.html" rel="">interviews</a> about the topic. “The [Vietnamese} government was getting skewed advice from the biotech industry and from their chief supporter—the U.S. government,” he said.</p></blockquote>
612. <div class="captioned-image-container">
613. <figure>
614. <div class="image2-inset">
615. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" title="poison-papers-carol-vanstrum-3-1501077878" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!77zr!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0106f468-acfb-4e3f-a32f-b59db8860a6c_1024x819.jpeg" alt="poison-papers-carol-vanstrum-3-1501077878" width="440" height="352" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/0106f468-acfb-4e3f-a32f-b59db8860a6c_1024x819.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1024,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;poison-papers-carol-vanstrum-3-1501077878&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
616. <div class="image-link-expand">
617. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
618. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
619. </div>
620. </div>
621. </div>
622. </figure>
623. </div>
624. <p>[Some of the more than 100,000 pages of discovery material related to the chemical industry that were stored in Carol Van Strum’s barn in rural Oregon],</p>
625. <div class="captioned-image-container">
626. <figure>
627. <div class="image2-inset">
628. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!e76D!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc13fa721-8216-4a29-bdb2-5b9edd00a884_1000x500.jpeg" alt="" width="418" height="209" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c13fa721-8216-4a29-bdb2-5b9edd00a884_1000x500.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:500,&quot;width&quot;:1000,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
629. <div class="image-link-expand">
630. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
631. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
632. </div>
633. </div>
634. </div>
635. </figure>
636. </div>
637. <div class="captioned-image-container">
638. <figure>
639. <div class="image2-inset">
640. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal aligncenter" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qpj1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd208894e-b2e0-47d3-94fc-561dc2312cec_342x501.png" alt="" width="269" height="394" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d208894e-b2e0-47d3-94fc-561dc2312cec_342x501.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:501,&quot;width&quot;:342,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:434646,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://paulokirk.substack.com/i/177270392?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd208894e-b2e0-47d3-94fc-561dc2312cec_342x501.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
641. <div class="image-link-expand">
642. <div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
643. <div class="pencraft pc-reset icon-container view-image"></div>
644. </div>
645. </div>
646. </div>
647. </figure>
648. </div>
649. <blockquote><p>“If we are overly accommodating, we will inevitably surrender our culture. All we want is justice.” — Nguyen Kim Phuong, 86, who lived through both wars involving the <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-defeated-at-dien-bien-phu" rel="">French</a> and the<a href="http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war" rel=""> Americans</a>. Phuong is forgiving about the war and is happy to see U.S.-Vietnam relations moving forward. But he is not happy to see Monsanto continually increasing its reach in his country, with little consequence for its actions.</p></blockquote>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/toxic-stew-chemicals-poisons-sprays-nanoparticles-vocs-pfass-and-the-evil-monsters-cooking-up-this-brew/">Toxic Stew: Chemicals, Poisons, Sprays, Nanoparticles, VOCs, PFAS’s and the Evil Monsters Cooking up this Brew</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
653. </item>
654. <item>
655. <title>Apartheid Israel Is a U.S.-Sustained Genocide</title>
656. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/apartheid-israel-is-a-u-s-sustained-genocide/</link>
658. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amel-Ba’al]]></dc:creator>
659. <pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2025 14:55:41 +0000</pubDate>
660. <category><![CDATA[Genocide]]></category>
661. <category><![CDATA[Nakba]]></category>
662. <category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
663. <category><![CDATA[The Lobby]]></category>
664. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
665. <category><![CDATA[Zionism]]></category>
666. <category><![CDATA[AIPAC lobby]]></category>
667. <category><![CDATA[Christian zionism]]></category>
668. <category><![CDATA[complicity]]></category>
669. <category><![CDATA[Jeffrey Sachs]]></category>
670. <category><![CDATA[right of return]]></category>
671. <category><![CDATA[Tucker Carlson]]></category>
672. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162608</guid>
673.  
674. <description><![CDATA[<p>Intro: The following is a statement from a U.S. war criminal, Harry S. Truman, who authorized the nuclear annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, revealing the foundational logic of American complicity in the Nakba: I had been to Potsdam and I’d seen some of the places where the Jews had been slaughtered by the Nazis. Six [&#8230;]</p>
675. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/apartheid-israel-is-a-u-s-sustained-genocide/">Apartheid Israel Is a U.S.-Sustained Genocide</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
676. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png" sizes="100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Y05G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png 1456w" alt="" width="s0s" height="316" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:911,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1340839,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://canaan48.substack.com/i/175390292?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F402f9ed7-5cde-4c88-b9fa-80aa1ea94fc7_1829x1145.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
677. <p><em>Intro: The following is a statement from a U.S. war criminal, Harry S. Truman, who authorized the nuclear annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te0dsP4z7j8">revealing the foundational logic of American complicity in the Nakba</a>:</em></p>
678. <blockquote><p>I had been to Potsdam and I’d seen some of the places where the Jews had been slaughtered by the Nazis. Six million Jews were killed outright—men, women, and children—by the Nazis, and it was my hope that they would have a homeland where they could operate. So when the time came for that, we set up the Israeli government in Palestine. We moved some of the Arabs out. And they were not moved out and thrown out; they were compensated for the land that they had to give up. The Jews organized a government over there, and it’s been a successful one ever since. They’ve done things over there that never have been done in that part of the world before, and while it’s a small republic, it’s an energetic one.</p></blockquote>
679. <p>We started with a quote that lays bare the imperial/colonial mentality: a narrative of European guilt and redemption solved at the expense of the native Arab population; the racist framing of Palestine as a backward region in need of “energetic” settler innovation; and the lie of a peaceful, compensated transfer, which whitewashes the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Palestinians from their historical homeland.</p>
680. <p>For over seventy-seven years, the Nakba has been shrouded in a fog—a miraculous concoction of deception, propaganda, and outright lies, spun in the halls of Western power to conceal an ongoing genocide. Yet, through the smoke and terror, Palestinians have always carried a fundamental certainty in our hearts: this entire edifice of falsehood would evaporate into the air when people began to know the truth. We are now living through that violent, glorious unraveling. The recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pDRbwI4R0I" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">spectacle</a> of two Americans—themselves the heirs of a settler-colonial project on stolen native land—Tucker Carlson and Jeffrey Sachs, stumbling through the graveyard of our history, is a stark symptom of this collapse. It is a rare crack in the imperial monolith, allowing shards of raw truth to pierce the manufactured reality. But for Palestinians, who have paid for this truth with generations of blood and exile, what matters is not a shard of revelation, but the full, unvarnished, and terrible totality. And this totality reveals that their well-intentioned confusion, their half-answers, are themselves a product of the very system they attempt to critique.</p>
681. <p>The connection between the imperial power and our occupied land is not a simple alliance of interests. It is a dialectical relationship, an evolving motion in two directions, a feedback loop of mutual reinforcement. The Yankee empire did not merely midwife the zionist settler-colonial project; it breathed life into its expansion, providing what Carlson quantifies as “$300 billion at least” over 80 years, a “$30 billion” injection in less than two years, and even a quarter of the world’s “THAAD missile batteries” to protect its outpost. But the dialectic is not a one-way street. The zionist entity, this imperial spearhead and criminal tool, is not a passive instrument. Its relentless expansion and its wars—what Professor Sachs, in a moment of stark clarity, identifies as “seven wars right now”—are not merely supported by the empire; they actively generate new global crises that the empire must then manage. As Sachs outlines, Netanyahu’s doctrine, articulated in the “Clean Break” document, is to deliberately create unrest and then ensure “the United States will go to war for us.” This is the grim synthesis of their relationship: a laboratory where tactics of fragmentation and annihilation are tested on Palestinian bodies, and the empire, as both patron and student, learns and exports these methods.<source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png" sizes="auto, 100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ZwXb!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png 1456w" alt="" width="505" height="282" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:813,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:225513,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://canaan48.substack.com/i/175390292?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb8e46e72-fd99-460f-905e-4775a85cfb57_1800x1005.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
682. <p>Watching Sachs and Carlson, any aware Palestinian thinks: here are citizens of the state that inherited and amplified the original sin of the Balfour Declaration, once again offering their sick prescriptions from the sidelines of our agony. They present the bankrupt “two-state solution,” a notion Sachs himself champions, insisting “there needs to be a state for the Palestinian people alongside a state of the Israelis.” But this “solution” is the original colonial formula, a weapon wielded with strategic cynicism. The zionist colonialists have only ever entertained this division when they were weak, using negotiations as a tactic to buy time; once their strength was consolidated through imperial backing, they have always refused it, revealing their true goal of total possession. As Sachs himself reveals, the current prime war criminal of this project, Netanyahu, has stated plainly to the world, “there will never be a state of Palestine.” Therefore, this “solution” is not a path to peace but a tool of pacification. Obscuring the settler-colonial and genocidal nature of the state is its only function. It is an attempt to launder a project, which Sachs himself calls a “genocide” and “mass murder,” into a legitimate “neighbor.” </p>
683. <p>How can a structure built on what he describes as making “Gaza completely uninhabitable and unlivable” ever be a normal state? Its very existence is predicated on our negation. Why, then, do these American intellectuals insist on peddling the corpse of an idea that the zionist land-robbers themselves have already murdered, an idea whose only function is to provide a diplomatic cover for endless occupation and land theft? It is the ultimate arrogance: the arsonists, their hands still smelling of petrol, offering to manage the fire they set.<source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" title="" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png" sizes="100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OL1c!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png 1456w" alt="" width="505" height="206.1" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:594,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:558775,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://canaan48.substack.com/i/175390292?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26480cc5-a793-431b-a066-57a5f8fe19e7_1882x768.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
684. <p>Professor Sachs, for all the good information he presents, offers only a half-truth, and in doing so, performs the very dilution we must resist. He meticulously lists the symptoms—the “AIPAC lobby,” the “Christian zionist vote base,” the “mass media propaganda”—yet arrives at a stunning confession of intellectual surrender: “To tell you the truth, none of it really adds up… a bit of a mystery.” He cannot see the elephant in the room: the American way of life itself, an engine of capitalist hegemony that requires dominance over the resources and strategic chokepoints of the globe. The Eastern Mediterranean is a vital artery, and the zionist state, as American officials have themselves admitted, is the “spearhead” to maintain that dominance. Sachs marvels that a “tiny and inherently insignificant country” with a “population of Burundi” commands such devotion. He fails to understand that it is not insignificant; it is the indispensable garrison, the “rogue state” whose lawlessness, as he notes, serves as the sharp edge of imperial power. That a learned professor cannot synthesize this is a testament to the deep indoctrination that bends the American mind, a society that, while lecturing the world on freedom, is itself one of the most deeply conditioned on Earth.<source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" title="" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png" sizes="auto, 100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9IlP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png 1456w" alt="" width="505" height="290" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:835,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:724248,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://canaan48.substack.com/i/175390292?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e711559-3057-44e9-82b4-b6490f0f6de6_1817x1042.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
685. <p>This is not a simple struggle. It is a system of interconnected dialectics, a machine of power whose gears are grinding against each other. Alongside the external contradiction—the primary struggle between the native and the settler-colonial alliance—two internal conflicts churn with transformative fury. There is the internal dialectic among the Arab natives of the land, a struggle between the progressive will of the masses and the reactionary cowardice of the comprador regimes, who play the role of the jailer’s assistant, hoping to manage the prison in exchange for a few scraps of privilege. Simultaneously, there is the internal dialectic within the imperialist camp itself, where the relationship between the core and its settler-colonial outpost has become a feedback loop of “absurdity.” As Carlson exposes, a “client state” now barks orders, with IOF officers “barging into meetings” at the Pentagon and a “foreign leader,” Netanyahu, openly plotting to censor American speech, demanding “We push Congress to force a Tik Tok sale” and to “talk to Elon.” This is the dialectic turning in on itself: the weapon created by empire now dictates to its creator, creating what Carlson rightly identifies as a state of “serial humiliation.” But this “humiliation” is merely a symptom. The actual, deeper truth is that this absurdity is the logical, inevitable result of an imperial project that requires its own subjects to be so deeply indoctrinated that they cannot even recognize their own subjugation. The convenient truth is to lament the symptom; the actual truth is to condemn the system that produces it.</p><source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png" sizes="auto, 100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WHvn!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png 1456w" alt="" width="505" height="198" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d6346f64-1524-4bad-9114-efee1b379a26_946x371.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:371,&quot;width&quot;:946,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:324063,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://canaan48.substack.com/i/175390292?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67f2401c-1c9f-417c-8df2-a6fcca478293_946x371.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /><br />
686. Israeli withdrawal and US presence!!</p>
687. <p>And this theater of humiliation is only possible because of the deep-seated indoctrination, the profound bend in the imperial brain, that prevents the Yank political class from even perceiving its own subjugation. The comprador in Washington is mentally shackled, unable to see that the master it serves abroad has made it a slave at home. This is not a policy failure; it is the logical outcome of an ideological system built on supremacy, now consuming its own.</p>
688. <p>This is why building a genuine united front requires an uncompromising ideological struggle against dilution. There can be no unity with those who premise their politics on our continued erasure. The front must be united on the non-negotiable principles of the Palestinian cause: the recognition of the ongoing Nakba, the inalienable Right of Return, and the understanding that zionism is a racist, settler-colonial project. The “good lies” of American pundits, who now criticize the “mass murder” but still cling to the frameworks that enabled it, are not welcome. Their task is not to help us find a more palatable version of our oppression, but to confront, as Sachs accuses, their own state’s “complicit[ity] in genocide.”</p><source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png" sizes="auto, 100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!AH0j!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png 1456w" alt="" width="505" height="382" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/5057ba44-6bbd-4954-87ea-2290ca1bdb82_632x478.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:478,&quot;width&quot;:632,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:87930,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://canaan48.substack.com/i/175390292?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54254ee0-2132-4ef2-a3c1-a0b69de09f65_632x478.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
689. <p>And now, the magic is turning on the magician. The dialectic produces its own terrifying contradiction. The indoctrinated citizens the Yank capitalist system created are now at the steering wheel of the very empire that conditioned them, steering the supremacist and bloody White House toward the abyss. The relationship has become so pathological that Carlson simply advises, “get some freaking self-respect and stop being ordered around by a client state.” The empire’s own tools of deception are now yielding a monstrous political reality that threatens to consume it from within. The world sees this, and as Sachs notes from the halls of the UN, it is now “two against the world,” with over “95% of the world population” standing against the Yank-zionist axis, leaving the U.S. regime in a state of nauseating isolation, defending the indefensible.</p>
690. <p>The liberation of Palestine is not a local event. It is the most concentrated front in a global struggle against a hegemonic imperialist system—the dismantling of the very lies that prop up the empire. When these Yank voices finally understand that their stupid, recycled ideas are not welcome, a corner will have been turned. The truth is not a compromise. It is the only foundation for justice. The full truth is that our struggle will not end with a negotiated settlement between the jailer and the jailed, but with the decolonization of the land and the bending of a crooked world back towards justice. The fog is lifting. The lie is unraveling. And we have always known it would.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/apartheid-israel-is-a-u-s-sustained-genocide/">Apartheid Israel Is a U.S.-Sustained Genocide</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
694. </item>
695. <item>
696. <title>Mr President, Take Our Critical Minerals: Albanese in the White House</title>
697. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/mr-president-take-our-critical-minerals-albanese-in-the-white-house/</link>
699. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Binoy Kampmark]]></dc:creator>
700. <pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2025 14:44:41 +0000</pubDate>
701. <category><![CDATA[Anthony Albanese]]></category>
702. <category><![CDATA[AUKUS Security Pact]]></category>
703. <category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category>
704. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
705. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
706. <category><![CDATA[Annabel Crabb]]></category>
707. <category><![CDATA[Bryce Wakefield]]></category>
708. <category><![CDATA[Julia Gillard]]></category>
709. <category><![CDATA[Kevin Rudd]]></category>
710. <category><![CDATA[Penny Wong]]></category>
711. <category><![CDATA[Sussan Ley]]></category>
712. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162612</guid>
713.  
714. <description><![CDATA[<p>The October 20 performance saw few transgressions and many feats of compliance. As a guest in the White House, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in no mood to be combative, and US President Donald Trump was accommodating. There was, however, an odd nervous glance shot at the host at various points. The latest turn [&#8230;]</p>
715. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/mr-president-take-our-critical-minerals-albanese-in-the-white-house/">Mr President, Take Our Critical Minerals: Albanese in the White House</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
716. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The October 20 performance saw few transgressions and many feats of compliance. As a guest in the White House, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in no mood to be combative, and US President Donald Trump was accommodating. There was, however, an odd nervous glance shot at the host at various points.</p>
717. <p>The latest turn of events from the perspective of those believing in Australian sovereignty, pitifully withered as it is, remains dark. In an attempt to seize a share of a market currently dominated by China, Albanese has willingly placed Australia’s rare earths and critical minerals at the disposal of US strategic interests. The <u><a class="western" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/10/united-states-australia-framework-for-securing-of-supply-in-the-mining-and-processing-of-critical-minerals-and-rare-earths/">framework document</a></u> focusing on mining and processing of such minerals is drafted with the hollow language of counterfeit equality. The objective “is to assist both countries in achieving resilience and security of minerals and rare earths supply chains, including mining, separation and processing”. The necessity of securing such supply is explicitly noted for reasons of war or, as the document notes, “necessary to support manufacturing of defense and advanced technologies” for both countries.</p>
718. <p>The US and Australia will draw on the money bags of the private sector to supplement government initiatives (guarantees, loans, equity and so forth), an incentive that will cause much salivating joy in the mining industry. Within 6 months “measures to provide at least $1 billion in financing to projects located in each of the United States and Australia expected to generate end product for delivery to buyers in the United States and Australia.”</p>
719. <p>The inequality of the agreement <u><a class="western" href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/trump-doesnt-think-much-about-us-thats-a-good-thing/">does not bother</a></u> such analysts as Bryce Wakefield, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He mysteriously thinks that Albanese did not “succumb to the routine sycophancy we’ve come to expect from other leaders”, something of a “win”. With the skill of a cabalist, he identified the benefits in the critical minerals framework which he thinks will be “the backbone for joint investment in at least six Australian projects.” The agreement would “counter China’s dominance over rare earths and supply chains.”</p>
720. <p class="western">Much of what was agreed between Trump and Albanese was barely covered by the sleepwalking press corps, despite the details of a White House <u><a class="western" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/10/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-closes-billion-dollar-deals-with-australia/">factsheet</a></u>. There were more <u><a class="western" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/10/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-closes-billion-dollar-deals-with-australia/">extorting deals</a></u> extracted from Canberra, with agreements to purchase US$1.2 billion in Anduril unmanned underwater vehicles and US$2.6 billion worth of Apache helicopters. Of particular significance was the agreement to push Australia’s superannuation funds to increase investments in the US to US$1.44 trillion by 2035, which would increase the pool by US$1 trillion. “This unprecedented investment will create tens of thousands of new, high paying jobs for Americans.”</p>
721. <p class="western">Back in Australia, attention was focused on other things. The mock affair known as the opposition party tried to make something of the personal ribbing given by Trump to Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd. Small minds are distracted by small matters, and instead of taking issue with the appalling cost of AUKUS with its chimerical submarines, or the voluntary relinquishment of various sectors of the Australian economy to US control, Sussan Ley of the Liberal Party was adamant that Rudd be sacked. This was occasioned <u><a class="western" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-21/donald-trump-kevin-rudd-i-dont-like-you-albanese-meeting/105914928">by an encounter</a></u> where Trump had turned to the Australian PM to ask if “an ambassador” had said anything “bad about me”. Trump’s follow up remarks: “Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.” The finger was duly pointed at Rudd by Albanese. “You said bad?” inquired Trump. Rudd, never one to manage the brief response, spoke of being critical of the president in his pre-ambassadorial phase but that was all in the past. “I don’t like you either,” shot Trump in reply. “And I probably never will.”</p>
722. <p class="western">This was enough to exercise Ley, who <u><a class="western" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-21/donald-trump-kevin-rudd-i-dont-like-you-albanese-meeting/105914928">claimed</a></u> to be “surprised that the president didn’t know who the Australian ambassador was”. This showed her thin sheet grasp of White House realities. Freedom Land’s previous presidents have struggled with names, geography and memory, the list starting with such luminaries as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Not knowing the name of an ambassador from an imperial outpost is hardly a shock.</p>
723. <p class="western">The Australian papers and broadcasters, however, drooled and saw seismic history in the presence of casual utterance. Sky News host Sharri Markson was <u><a class="western" href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/trump-places-rudd-firmly-in-his-place-during-white-house-meeting/video/8759ba53646282bb633c242ff3dc9b8c">reliably idiotic</a></u>: “The big news of course is President Trump’s meeting with Albanese today and the major news story to come out of it is Trump putting Rudd firmly in his place.” Often sensible in her assessments, the political columnist Annabel Crabb <u><a class="western" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-21/trump-albanese-meeting-rudd-pound-of-flesh/105916336">showed</a></u> she had lost her mind, imbibing the Trump jungle juice and relaying it to her unfortunate readers. “From his humble early days as a child reading Hansard in the regional Sunshine State pocket of Eumundi, Kevin Rudd has been preparing for this martyrdom.”</p>
724. <p class="western">Having <u><a class="western" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-06-24/gillard-ousts-rudd-in-bloodless-coup/879136">been politically martyred by the Labor Party</a></u> at the hands of his own deputy Julia Gillard in June 2010, who challenged him for being a mentally unstable, micromanaging misfit driving down poll ratings, this was amateurish. But a wretchedly bad story should not be meddled with. At the very least, Crabb blandly offered a smidgen of humour, suggesting that Albanese, having gone into the meeting “with the perennially open chequebook for American submarines, plus an option over our continent’s considerable rare-earths reserves” was bound to come with some human sacrifice hovering “in the ether.”</p>
725. <p>In this grand abdication of responsibility by the press and bought think tankers, little in terms of detail was discussed about the next annexation of Australian control over its own affairs by the US. It was all babble about the views of Trump and whether, <u><a class="western" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-21/donald-trump-kevin-rudd-i-dont-like-you-albanese-meeting/105914928">in the words</a></u> of Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Rudd “did an extremely good job, not only in getting the meeting, but doing the work on the critical minerals deal and AUKUS”. For the experts moored in antipodean isolation, Rudd had either been bad by being disliked for past remarks on the US chief magistrate, or good in being a representative of servile facilitation. To give him his due, Wakefield was correct to note how commentators in Australia “continue to personalise the alliance” equating it to “an episode of <i>The Apprentice</i>.”</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/mr-president-take-our-critical-minerals-albanese-in-the-white-house/">Mr President, Take Our Critical Minerals: Albanese in the White House</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
729. </item>
730. <item>
731. <title>No Kings, Fascism, and Democracy</title>
732. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-kings-fascism-and-democracy/</link>
734. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael K. Smith]]></dc:creator>
735. <pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2025 14:30:12 +0000</pubDate>
736. <category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
737. <category><![CDATA[Democrats]]></category>
738. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
739. <category><![CDATA[Economic Inequality]]></category>
740. <category><![CDATA[Fascism]]></category>
741. <category><![CDATA[Medical Insurance]]></category>
742. <category><![CDATA[Neoliberalism]]></category>
743. <category><![CDATA[Bernie Sanders]]></category>
744. <category><![CDATA[DNC]]></category>
745. <category><![CDATA[James Clyburn]]></category>
746. <category><![CDATA[Jimmy Kimmel]]></category>
747. <category><![CDATA[Nancy Pelosi]]></category>
748. <category><![CDATA[Plutocracy]]></category>
749. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162603</guid>
750.  
751. <description><![CDATA[<p>The disease gets worse and worse every year, and the only remedy that will have permanent effect is to abolish private ownership of industry and production for profit, and substitute public ownership with production for use. &#8212; Upton Sinclair, &#8220;Production For Use&#8221; in New Deal Thought, 1933, edited by Howard Zinn Donald Trump, after talking [&#8230;]</p>
752. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-kings-fascism-and-democracy/">No Kings, Fascism, and Democracy</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
753. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>The disease gets worse and worse every year, and the only remedy that will have permanent effect is to abolish private ownership of industry and production for profit, and substitute public ownership with production for use.</p>
754. <p>&#8212; Upton Sinclair, &#8220;Production For Use&#8221; in <em>New Deal Thought</em>, 1933, edited by Howard Zinn</p></blockquote>
755. <p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/michael-smith-portraits.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/michael-smith-portraits-203x300.png" alt="" width="203" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-162634" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/michael-smith-portraits-203x300.png 203w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/michael-smith-portraits.png 373w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px" /></a>Donald Trump, after talking with the San Francisco mayor and wealthy business leaders in the Bay Area, has at least temporarily backed off from unleashing a Chicago-style ICE spectacle there.</p>
756. <p>This is but the latest un-fascist display by the Orange &#8220;Hitler,&#8221; who couldn&#8217;t even bring down Jimmy Kimmel, much less conquer and subdue a string of countries on multiple continents.</p>
757. <p>In reality, the fascist thesis as applied to Trump doesn&#8217;t really hold together well, especially if it is seen as a repetition of Nazism. Unlike Hitler, who was probably the most popular political leader in German history before WWII, Trump struggles to maintain approval in the low-forties and has yet to find a single issue that can forge a robust national unity behind the Dear Leader.</p>
758. <p>More importantly, he does not seek to establish a new system of representation beyond parliaments and traditional parties to replace the liberal model, as the Nazis did, but to enhance his own fame and fortune by picking the carcass of a collapsing U.S. empire while promising an impossible return to its &#8220;glorious&#8221; past. He&#8217;s a con-man, not a conqueror.</p>
759. <p>Do we really think that blowing up fishing boats and trying to finish wars in a single weekend to avoid stock market losses (Trump&#8217;s strategy in bombing Iran last June) represent the martial glory fascists live for?</p>
760. <p>Even if Trump wanted to be a Nazi cult leader, he wouldn&#8217;t be able to, as mass culture doesn&#8217;t exist today like it did in the 1930s. Cultural space these days is highly fragmented due to neo-liberal stratification and anti-social media, which make mass mobilization much more difficult than it was for the Nazis. So while Trump can give us more January 6s, he can&#8217;t deliver anything like Hitler&#8217;s Nuremberg rallies, and his capacity to transform U.S. culture as a whole is nil.</p>
761. <p>His talent is for division, not unity, and his erratic policies look more like a staccato sequence of lunatic reality TV episodes than they do the unfolding of a fascist ideological program. Programmatic change requires order, after all, whereas Trump is an agent of chaos, which by definition can&#8217;t be normalized.</p>
762. <p>As a response to Trump&#8217;s admittedly harrowing second term, repeatedly declaring, &#8220;This is fascism!&#8221; in a rising tone of righteous indignation really does not constitute opposition, nor does it achieve anything more than a demonstration of the highly agitated state of the outraged person, which only delights the MAGA base, as such reactions are proof of their &#8220;owning the libs.&#8221;</p>
763. <p>Government of the triggered, by the triggered, and for the triggered will not win the day.</p>
764. <p>Realistically, we are in for an extended period of trench warfare, not a violent subjugation by &#8220;fascists.&#8221; The contending parties are Trump, who aspires to personal dictatorship based on his victories at the polls, and the dictatorship of money, which has never been elected by anyone. In the middle are we-the-people, who must quickly find a way to create real democracy or else be crushed by polarized elites who agree on nothing more than that the people must shut up and obey.</p>
765. <p>The beginning of this process may be the fact that Trump has stirred up a broad, uneasy &#8220;resistance&#8221; movement in the nine months since he returned to the White House. Although still too superficial in its approach, it&#8217;s definitely a plus that some seven million people in more than 2700 demonstrations throughout the fifty states of the fragmenting American union recently came together to reject the anti-democratic regression propelled by his administration. Under the slogan &#8220;No Kings,&#8221; political activists, celebrities, and concerned citizens from all parts of the country denounced the magnate&#8217;s ploys to dismantle institutional checks on executive power in an effort to amass boundless personal power unto himself, warning that he has set himself on a path that may soon convert the American republic into a monarchy or worse.</p>
766. <p>Unfortunately, the &#8220;King&#8221; thesis appears to be poorly thought through. If Trump is King, then Netanyahu must be the King of Kings, able to reduce the U.S. monarch to his personal lackey at the snap of his fingers. This has to be a major concern for any authentic resistance movement, but at the &#8220;No Kings&#8221; march in New York City, there was (1) an approved list of chants (!) and (2) &#8220;Free Palestine!&#8221; wasn&#8217;t on it (!)</p>
767. <p>Hopefully, the movement&#8217;s paternalism will disappear and its priorities improve.</p>
768. <p>In any event, the &#8220;King&#8221; problem is hardly restricted to the Republican side of the aisle. We got Trump in the first place because Democrats rigged the 2016 elections against the most popular politician in the country &#8212; Bernie Sanders &#8212; then pumped up Trump as the opponent they could most easily beat, but then couldn&#8217;t do so. They barely defeated him in 2020 only thanks to Covid, but then refused to hold primaries in 2024 and put up the vegetable Biden, replacing him late in the campaign with Kamala Harris, who never won a single delegate when she ran for president in 2020. Meanwhile, &#8220;King&#8221; Trump has taken on and defeated a wide field of candidates running against him over the course of the decade he has dominated American politics.</p>
769. <p>If Trump is a King, then what are James Clyburn and Nancy Pelosi? They are as entrenched in their positions as any King could be, tolerating no primaries or debates, ruling apparently until death with no possible successful challenge from within the Democratic Party.</p>
770. <p>If we are serious about transforming U.S. politics we must not only remove Donald Trump from office, but also what the late economist Edward Herman called the un-elected dictatorship of money, the massive centers of private wealth that dominate the state and fund both political parties, precisely in order to prevent any possibility of citizen-led democracy. It is these conglomerations of capital and their fatuous dream of limitless profit (at public expense) that are at the root of our most pressing political problems today.</p>
771. <p>We have an &#8220;immigration problem&#8221; because Big Capital holds down living standards abroad then welcomes fleeing workers as &#8220;cheap labor&#8221; when they reach the U.S., flouting the law and passing on the social costs to others.</p>
772. <p>We have a &#8220;homeless problem&#8221; because there is more private profit in dislodging the poor from their homes and &#8220;gentrifying&#8221; them, than in guaranteeing housing to all as a matter of right.</p>
773. <p>We have a &#8220;healthcare crisis&#8221; because capitalism defines medical care as a commodity and rations it according to ability to pay, not medical need. The poorest and sickest people get the worst care and die the youngest; the wealthiest and healthiest people get the best care and live the longest. Got a problem with that? Fuck you.</p>
774. <p>There is no solution to these and many other problems without challenging the right of capital to transform societies into collections of profitable commodities to be bought and sold by the highest bidder.</p>
775. <p>American society must be de-commodified by a popular democratic movement aiming to reconstitute the state in order to establish the dignity of labor and broad social equality. This admittedly ambitious goal will necessarily take us far beyond the Democrat-Republican ideological fight into the realm of establishing a culture of social justice, which is what Dr. King gave his life for.</p>
776. <p>A state dedicated to social justice cannot content itself with being a neutral arbitrator between rival criminal organizations (the DNC and the GOP), but must strive to meet the demands of justice for all. It must cease looking for guidance from financial markets and begin to look to the needs and talents of the people it is supposed to serve. It must dismantle the vast networks of private wealth fastened like barnacles to the state and build democratic legitimacy through policies in the interest of and articulated by an organized majority. Those policies must reverse neo-liberal austerity and return to national development, this time under the aegis of <em>public profit</em>. Private profit can and should continue to exist, but released from subordination to monopoly interests, which will help small business and the entire culture to flourish.</p>
777. <p>Wages must be substantially raised, employment and medical care guaranteed to all (the latter free at the point of service), and a sovereign financial system capable of channeling savings to innovation and the productive sector established. A public banking system must be created to free the economy from the shackles of usury and convert production into an engine of national development rather than an intermediary of parasitic capital. Without democratic control over credit there can be no real political economy; without political economy there is no real sovereignty.</p>
778. <p>As things stand right now, we are a nation of dependent paycheck nomads, not independent citizens. We might reasonably call ourselves the United Corporations of America, but not the United States of America, and certainly not a democracy. There can be no democracy under plutocracy.</p>
779. <p>This is not a call to hand over the economic steering wheel to pointy-headed  government bureaucrats, but to subordinate capital to the national interest. Massive concentrations of private wealth can be of no general benefit unless brought under democratic citizen control. Capital should propel a broad network of small and medium-sized productive units to fulfill the economic needs of the American people, not shower the Elon Musks of the world with public money so they can create a trillionaire class. <em>Who needs a trillionaire class?<br />
780. </em></p>
781. <p>A citizen-directed state can and should direct, regulate, and guard against private interests re-capturing public decisions and distorting national priorities. Private capital can be an ally of democracy, but never its boss, for it ceases to be democracy at that point. We must create a strong government grounded in democratic legitimacy and technical capacity, capable of disciplining private economic power and putting it at the service of the common good. Only in that way can the state and productive sector be instruments of national sovereignty, rather than a doorway through which an un-elected dictatorship of profiteers enters to restore private domination of public policy.</p>
782. <p>Our economic goal should not be to administer stagnation and decline, as the neo-liberals have done, nor to surrender to delusions of restoring the robber baron era of U.S. capitalism, which is neither desirable nor achievable. We should dedicate ourselves to crafting a national economic policy that articulates the needs and goals of science, energy, and business, to be carried out by an efficient state planning body capable of coordinating public and private investment in fulfillment of a chosen democratic purpose. Without state direction, the best-laid plans will fizzle out; without broad democratic legitimacy, the economy will fragment and popular sovereignty melt away.</p>
783. <p>Economic transformation will require educational transformation. We should not have to rely on brain-draining talent from other countries. Our own schools should produce the talent we need. This means an education system oriented towards national production, innovation, and work. Treating workers as mindless atoms of production and lazy maximizers of consumption is an abysmal failure. There is no justification for divorcing production from learning and consumption from creativity &#8211; except to perpetuate a professional servant class and highly undemocratic elite governing a failing society. We have had enough of that already.</p>
784. <p>Of course such an agenda will be dismissed as &#8220;Bolshevism&#8221; and worse, but we should not let disingenuous calls for &#8220;consensus&#8221; and &#8220;pragmatism&#8221; lead to capital subordinating public interest to private gain all over again. Public functions should be plainly in public hands, animated by a program of public profit, democratically determined.</p>
785. <p>Real transformation does not come from conciliation and deference to private power. It comes from confrontation, breaking with dependence, bureaucratic mediocrity, and parasitic elites. This is a historic necessity, not a misguided indulgence of the non-existent &#8220;radical left.&#8221; Every real gain, from the abolition of slavery to legal labor unions to universal suffrage of the adult population, was a battle against fear, complacency, and bureaucratic inertia.</p>
786. <p>Let&#8217;s abandon the rearguard struggle to hold on to the remnants of past gains without challenging the legitimacy of private interests dominating the state and leading us to ever greater disaster. We shouldn&#8217;t want to perpetuate power, but transform it.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-kings-fascism-and-democracy/">No Kings, Fascism, and Democracy</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
790. </item>
791. <item>
792. <title>Trump: Starting, Thwarting, and Claiming He Is Good at Stopping Wars</title>
793. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/trump-starting-thwarting-and-claiming-he-is-good-at-stopping-wars/</link>
795. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Kim Petersen]]></dc:creator>
796. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
797. <category><![CDATA[Assassinations]]></category>
798. <category><![CDATA[Cambodia]]></category>
799. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
800. <category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
801. <category><![CDATA[Militarism]]></category>
802. <category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
803. <category><![CDATA[Peace]]></category>
804. <category><![CDATA[Syria]]></category>
805. <category><![CDATA[Thailand]]></category>
806. <category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>
807. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
808. <category><![CDATA[Venezuela]]></category>
809. <category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
810. <category><![CDATA[Yemen]]></category>
811. <category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
812. <category><![CDATA[boasting]]></category>
813. <category><![CDATA[bragging]]></category>
814. <category><![CDATA[Hayat Tahrir al-Sham]]></category>
815. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162571</guid>
816.  
817. <description><![CDATA[<p>Donald Trump: &#8220;If I were president, and I say this, I will end that war in one day. It&#8217;ll take 24 hours. I know Zelenskyy well; I know Putin well. I would get that ended in a period&#8230; Interviewer interrupts: &#8220;You can broker that deal?&#8221; Donald Trump: &#8220;100 per cent. It would be easy; that [&#8230;]</p>
818. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/trump-starting-thwarting-and-claiming-he-is-good-at-stopping-wars/">Trump: Starting, Thwarting, and Claiming He Is Good at Stopping Wars</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
819. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p><strong>Donald Trump</strong>: &#8220;If I were president, and I say this, I will end that war in one day. It&#8217;ll take 24 hours. I know Zelenskyy well; I know Putin well. I would get that ended in a period&#8230;<br />
820. <strong>Interviewer</strong> interrupts: &#8220;You can broker that deal?&#8221;<br />
821. <strong>Donald Trump</strong>: &#8220;100 per cent. It would be easy; that deal would be easy&#8230;. but I would get that deal done within 24 hours that war has to be stopped&#8230;</p>
822. <p>&#8212; &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fEbGppH86M">Trump says he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours if he were president</a>,&#8221; 4 May 2023</p></blockquote>
823. <p>Trump has been the US president in his second term now for over 9 months, and the fighting is still ongoing between Russia and Ukraine+NATO. Currently however, Russia is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPjdRwzlBMk">reported to have encircled many Ukrainian soldiers</a>, as Trump is demanding Russia agree to a ceasefire &#8212; a demand rejected by Vladimir Putin. Trump seeks to elude his previous hyperbolic boast by stating it is &#8220;Biden&#8217;s war.&#8221;</p>
824. <p>He also throws the United Nations under the bus, ignoring his administration&#8217;s blame for the failure to end certain wars. Meanwhile, he is praising himself for ending a brief outbreak of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia.</p>
825. <p>“But, I mean, the United Nations has such great potential. I wish they could do it. They didn’t get involved with us at all. We just did the deal and reported the deal, and everybody was sort of amazed that we got it done so quickly and so nicely,” said Trump.</p>
826. <p>Trump with characteristic immodesty states that, for him, stopping wars is &#8220;much more serious than a hobby, but it’s something that I’m good at, and it’s something I love to do.” </p>
827. <p>What is Trump&#8217;s secret recipe for stopping wars? With the cessation of fighting between Cambodia and Thailand, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcv1YHi-Bu4&#038;t=2284s">Trump reduced his “reciprocal” tariffs</a> for Cambodia and Thailand to 19 per cent — down from threatened rates of 49 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.</p>
828. <p>What does it mean to &#8220;be good&#8221; at stopping wars and to fail miserably to live up to his braggadocio to end wars, as exemplified by the Russia special military operation against Ukraine+NATO?</p>
829. <p>Does Trump also pat himself on his back for the predictably <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/18/israel-has-violated-ceasefire-47-times-and-killed-38-palestinians-says-gaza-media-office">broken ceasefire by Israel</a> against Gaza? Trump&#8217;s administration was also involved with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3yj41083no">thwarting the UN</a> and the <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/israel-and-us-scorn-icj-ruling-against-starving-civilians-as-method-of-warfare/">International Criminal Court</a> in ending Israel&#8217;s committing a genocide.</p>
830. <p>And what does being good at stopping wars mean when Trump&#8217;s government is at the same time starting wars elsewhere? Case in point, the US-backed downfall of the Syrian government to the renamed <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/ex-cia-chief-welcome-founder-syrian-al-qaeda/5901130">al Qaeda outfit, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)</a>. And the attacks on Yemen and Iran should be kept in mind. Currently, what would be risible if it were not so serious a violation of international law and disregard for human life, the Trump administration has been bombing Venezuelan fishing boats. No presumption of innocence, no attempt to intercept peacefully, and no evidence of drug running as claimed by Trump. These are the actions of a warmonger who <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/09/five-actions-that-definitively-disqualify-trump-for-his-coveted-nobel-peace-prize/">campaigned for a Nobel Peace Prize</a>, an <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/10/what-purpose-does-the-nobel-prize-serve/">ignominious peace award</a>.</p>
831. <p>Given further background, what credence should one confer to Trump&#8217;s boast of being good at stopping wars?</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/trump-starting-thwarting-and-claiming-he-is-good-at-stopping-wars/">Trump: Starting, Thwarting, and Claiming He Is Good at Stopping Wars</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
835. </item>
836. <item>
837. <title>Martyrs to the Unspeakable: A Luminous Tapestry of Truth</title>
838. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/martyrs-to-the-unspeakable-a-luminous-tapestry-of-truth/</link>
840. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Curtin]]></dc:creator>
841. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:05:16 +0000</pubDate>
842. <category><![CDATA[Assassinations]]></category>
843. <category><![CDATA[Book Review]]></category>
844. <category><![CDATA[CIA]]></category>
845. <category><![CDATA[FBI]]></category>
846. <category><![CDATA[Human Rights]]></category>
847. <category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
848. <category><![CDATA[John F. Kennedy]]></category>
849. <category><![CDATA[Malcolm X]]></category>
850. <category><![CDATA[Martin Luther King Jr.]]></category>
851. <category><![CDATA[Nukes]]></category>
852. <category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
853. <category><![CDATA[Robert F. Kennedy]]></category>
854. <category><![CDATA[Viet Nam]]></category>
855. <category><![CDATA[Allen Dulles]]></category>
856. <category><![CDATA[American Zionist Council]]></category>
857. <category><![CDATA[Charles de Gaulle]]></category>
858. <category><![CDATA[Colonel Andre Serot]]></category>
859. <category><![CDATA[Count Folke Bernadotte]]></category>
860. <category><![CDATA[Curtis LeMay]]></category>
861. <category><![CDATA[David Ben Gurion]]></category>
862. <category><![CDATA[Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi]]></category>
863. <category><![CDATA[Edward Lansdale]]></category>
864. <category><![CDATA[Foreign Agency Registration Act]]></category>
865. <category><![CDATA[International Police Academy]]></category>
866. <category><![CDATA[J. Edgar Hoover]]></category>
867. <category><![CDATA[James Jesus Angleton]]></category>
868. <category><![CDATA[James W. Douglass]]></category>
869. <category><![CDATA[LAPD]]></category>
870. <category><![CDATA[Lyman Lemnitzer]]></category>
871. <category><![CDATA[Richard Helm]]></category>
872. <category><![CDATA[Robert Houghton]]></category>
873. <category><![CDATA[Roger LaJeunesse]]></category>
874. <category><![CDATA[scapegoats]]></category>
875. <category><![CDATA[Shimon Perez]]></category>
876. <category><![CDATA[Sirhan]]></category>
877. <category><![CDATA[Stern gang]]></category>
878. <category><![CDATA[Yitzhak Shamir]]></category>
879. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162584</guid>
880.  
881. <description><![CDATA[<p>To weave a magnificent tapestry like the one James W. Douglass has created with Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK takes a steady hand, a hopeful heart, and a steadfast dedication to seeking truth and telling it through factually based and interwoven stories. Because of its brilliant complexity and [&#8230;]</p>
882. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/martyrs-to-the-unspeakable-a-luminous-tapestry-of-truth/"><em>Martyrs to the Unspeakable</em>: A Luminous Tapestry of Truth</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
883. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>To weave a magnificent tapestry like the one James W. Douglass has created with <a href="https://orbisbooks.com/products/martyrs-to-the-unspeakable-vol-2"><em>Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK </em></a>takes a steady hand, a hopeful heart, and a steadfast dedication to seeking truth and telling it through factually based and interwoven stories.</p>
884. <p>Because of its brilliant complexity and documented details, it is difficult to review, but I will say at the outset that it is a masterpiece, the culmination of Douglass’s life of writing about and fighting for peace and justice for our human family.</p>
885. <p>It is a book that could only be written by a man sustained by a spiritual faith that inspired his four subjects to face their own deaths without flinching, so that others might be saved. It is a testament to four leaders violently gunned down, written by a man whose faith in nonviolence is unshakeable.</p>
886. <p>Douglass grasps the prophet and artist’s secret that we all live by stories, and the martyred heroes’ tales he recounts in this book are sorely needed in this darkest of times when the death of our planet is at stake and the spiritual sustenance to prevent it is desperately needed.</p>
887. <p>The truths he recounts through these stories are sad and joyous, for they convey both the agony of terrible deaths but also the ecstasy of the hope that is resurrected through grasping the courage of four great men who defiantly dared to confront the unspeakable lies of their government and society. Four men who died trying to open others’ eyes to terrible truths hard to swallow.</p>
888. <p><strong>The Tapestry</strong></p>
889. <p>All tapestries take patience and a meditative eye to discern the deepest possible meanings that are woven into their intricate designs. I remember once standing for ten minutes in front of a series of very famous and confusing medieval tapestries at The Met Cloisters in NYC – <em>The Hunt of the Unicorn</em> – puzzling over their meaning. Ten minutes left me stumped.</p>
890. <p>The same is true of a review of this book, which can barely scratch the surface of its cumulative spiritual and political power and relevance; nor the thousands of threaded details that make it whole. But I will nevertheless scratch away to induce you to enter the ways of justice and compassion Douglass tells through the lives of these martyrs for truth. It takes time, but the spent time will tell you a story that is beyond time – it is eternal.</p>
891. <p>It is imperative, moreover, that one do something very unusual in these days of Internet skimming where manifold specious claims about who killed these four men, and why, are bandied about like Halloween candy for childish masked minds: One must slowly and carefully immerse oneself in the entire book with an open heart and mind and let the tales enter you.</p>
892. <p>It is commonly known that John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy were assassinated long ago; but it is the intricacies of their personal and political tales, how they dealt with betrayals, threats, and lies, and how their lives and missions intersected, where the meaning manifests itself. The facts are essential, but they are lumps of inert clay until the spirit moves them. These men, despite all their frailties, were moved by the spirit of compassion for others; they were men for others despite the risks to themselves. If this sounds too gushy to you, it could be because you are confusing them with most public figures whose primary concern is power, prestige, and self-survival at all costs.</p>
893. <p>Douglass’s genius is to cut to the heart of the matter – to find redemptive meaning in the great mishmash of facts and awaken this compassionate spirit in the reader, just as his subjects had to discover it in the circumstances into which life had tossed them. Just as we do.</p>
894. <p>Life is always what comes next.</p>
895. <p><strong>One Story Out of Four</strong></p>
896. <p>Douglass creates one story out of four – or more – and it is a story of hope despite the near despair the deaths of these men brought. As one who lived through them as a young man, I can attest to that despair, as I recall the time, place, even the weather and smaller details when first hearing the news, and how my heart sank into a dark pit. Deaths at mid-day, late afternoon, evening, and late at night, alarm bells to shatter the spirit. Angelus bells in reverse, or as Edgar Allen Poe puts it in “The Bells”:</p>
897. <blockquote><p>Hear the loud alarum bells—<br />
898. Brazen bells!<br />
899. What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!<br />
900. In the startled ear of night<br />
901. How they scream out their affright!<br />
902. Too much horrified to speak,<br />
903. They can only shriek, shriek,<br />
904. Out of tune,<br />
905. …………………………………………………………….</p>
906. <p>Keeping time, time, time,<br />
907. In a sort of Runic rhyme,<br />
908. To the throbbing of the bells—<br />
909. Of the bells, bells, bells—<br />
910. To the sobbing of the bells</p></blockquote>
911. <p>Yet despite the tolling of the devil’s bells, Douglass tells a tale of hope rooted in the similarities between kindred souls who lived their lives so courageously in full awareness that they would probably be killed for trying to bring peace on earth and good will to people everywhere. It was courage rooted in a faith most real, seeding for us the challenge that love can conquer hate if, as Douglass puts it, we “discern a way to walk with our martyrs out of the darkness.” That is a very hard task, rooted in the heart but dependent on a commitment to political non-violent resistance.</p>
912. <p>Because he is a theologian as well as an historian, it is important that I point out that this work is not a hagiography or a mythic creation, for the stories, while extraordinary, are factual, not fictional, and Douglass supports all his textual claims with extensive footnotes that source and clarify. The reader, when wondering, need just look down the page for elucidation and sources. The fact that he and his editor at Orbis Books, Robert Ellsberg, have returned to this esteemed and crucial – but largely abandoned – publishing tradition of footnotes on nearly every page, not endnotes, is most commendable and an example of their transparency and dedication to the truth. So challenge this, if you dare, the notes say! We are not putting these at the end of the book where you will have to go back and forth, working to connect them to the text. Just look down, and follow the factual trail yourself.</p>
913. <p>No, this is not a hagiography; it is a book about human transformation, the ways these men changed over time. For example, Douglass makes it clear that in the early 1960s John and Robert Kennedy were supporters of counterinsurgency policies in Vietnam and around the world. But they grew to see that they were wrong. They grew to see their earlier inclinations were right and they had taken a wrong path. So they changed. By 1965, with his brother dead as a result of such changes, Robert Kennedy gave a speech to the International Police Academy (IPA) on the occasion of the graduation of 146 CIA (AID)-recruited police trainees in which he rejected the Johnson administration’s counterinsurgency strategy in Vietnam. He was subjected to harsh criticism for this and was soon called a traitor for his opposition to the escalation of the war. When he was assassinated in 1968, he was adamantly opposed to the war.</p>
914. <p>Douglass, beside being a fastidious researcher, is an astute psychologist. He knows that human change is hard, halting, and complex, but it happens.</p>
915. <p><strong><em>Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK </em></strong>is a companion volume to Douglass’s bestselling <a href="https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/Unspeakable/index.html#s2"><strong><em>JFK and the Unspeakable</em></strong></a><strong>,</strong> a book (first published in 2008) that made it  very clear that JFK was assassinated by the CIA because he had turned redemptively toward peacemaking, not war. That book, so meticulously documented and told so compellingly, showed why his life and death matter today because a message was sent from the streets of Dallas to every president since. They have all bowed to the message’s threat: You must support the nuclear warfare state – or else.</p>
916. <p>Those who have read that groundbreaking volume have been waiting for a sequel for a long time. <em>Martyrs to the Unspeakable</em> is it.</p>
917. <p><strong>The End Is Our Beginning </strong></p>
918. <p>So let me begin at the end with Douglass’s <em>Epilogue</em> that is not an afterthought, where in a few pages he tells the story of Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swede, who during WW II had led a Swedish Red Cross expedition that freed thousands of Jews and other prisoners from Nazi concentration camps. In 1948 he was appointed the United Nations Mediator in Palestine. Because he was attempting to fairly resolve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, he was assassinated by the Zionist Stern Gang, also known as LEHI, at a roadblock in Jerusalem. The Stern Gang’s command included Yitzhak Shamir, a future prime minister of Israel. The assassin was Yehoshua Cohen, who would become the closest friend and security guard for the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion.</p>
919. <p>Douglass clearly wants the reader to know that there are other great courageous souls whose names are barely known and have been erased from history, unlike JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK, whose stories he is resurrecting. These unknown martyrs to the unspeakable are a latent stream of hidden hope once one learns their stories.</p>
920. <p>Bernadotte’s companion in the car when he was assassinated was also killed. He was Colonel Andre Serot, a French observer for the U.N. team, who was in the car by chance since Ralph Bunche, Bernadotte’s close American assistant, had been delayed, and Bernadotte asked Serot, who was talking to him from the outside, to join him in the car. The assassins assumed Serot, who was dark complexioned, was Bunche, who was African-American and whom they had targeted with Bernadotte.</p>
921. <p>In a simple twist of fate that presaged today’s role-reversals with the genocide of Palestinians being carried out by Israel, Serot’s wife was one of the people Bernadotte had saved from a Nazi concentration camp.</p>
922. <p>“What we call the beginning is often the end /And to make an end is to make a beginning. /The end is where we start from,” wrote T. S. Eliot.</p>
923. <p><strong>The Start</strong></p>
924. <p>So let me now return to the ostensible beginning. The book, like Gaul, but unlike Caesar’s militaristic usage since it concerns the ways a modern empire murders its prophets of peace<em>, </em>is divided into three parts <em>(est omnis divisa in partes tres)</em>: The Witness, The Way, and The Why, comprised of nine chapters, with the first and last containing important material about JFK, Israel, Russia, and nuclear weapons, much of which supplements what was provided in <em>JFK and the Unspeakable</em>. There is little new detail provided about the CIA’s assassination of John since that was covered extensively and proven definitively in the first book, but there is much about the CIA/FBI assassinations of Malcolm, Martin, and Bobby, thereby creating a trinity of shorter Unspeakables within this present longer volume. Douglass begins unequivocally:</p>
925. <blockquote><p>[When a modern empire murders hope,] “it acts with the same resolve the Roman Empire did with roadside crucifixions to deter rebellion and thievery. Crucified with slaves and prophets who resisted the empire were common criminals. . . . In our day, the slaves and criminals are merged and said to have killed the prophets. We are given enslaved scapegoats with criminal backgrounds so we can feel like we have accused and punished someone for our government-led assassinations . . . . Lee Harvey Oswald . . . . ‘Black Muslims’ . . . . James Earl Ray . . . . Sirhan . . . . The scapegoats, set up by government agencies to take the onus off the empire, are an odd bunch. Yet, through compliant media, they are filtered into our consciousness as marginal culprits. A mighty movement for change has been derailed at crucial moments of our history, yet without credible motivations by the apparent perpetrators.”</p></blockquote>
926. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-7876 size-full" src="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/JFKz.jpg" sizes="auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" srcset="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/JFKz.jpg 400w, https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/JFKz-225x300.jpg 225w" alt="" width="400" height="533" /></p>
927. <p><strong>JFK, RFK, and Israel</strong></p>
928. <p>The stunning opening chapter recounts JFK’s fierce battle with David Ben-Gurion, Shimon Perez, and other Israelis to prevent Israel from developing nuclear weapons – nuclear disarmament being Kennedy’s obsession after the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 nearly led to full-scale nuclear annihilation –  and sets the stage for all that follows. Douglass documents the ways John <strong>and</strong> Bobby Kennedy, united in purpose, tried assiduously to derail Israel’s development of nuclear weapons at its Dimona nuclear reactor, but, in the end, were defeated by Israel’s lies, deceptions, and delaying tactics. And as Douglass points out, they were ably assisted by the CIA’s treacherous counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton, who provided Israel with covert assistance in acquiring nuclear weapons.</p>
929. <p>The Kennedys were seeking a non-nuclear and neutralist Israel in opposition to Cold War Washington, as they pursued an Arab-Israeli peace within a larger U.S.-Soviet one. One aspect of this was their efforts to create a relationship with Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Israelis thwarted them in all their efforts. JFK knew the Israelis were lying to him – as he told the journalist Charles Bartlett – “The sons of-bitches lie to me constantly about their nuclear capability.”</p>
930. <p>Additionally, his Justice Department, led by RFK, was trying to enforce the Foreign Agency Registration Act against the American Zionist Council (AZC) whose influence in the U.S. was enormous (as the Israel Lobby is more so today). But that effort also failed, as the AZC fought the Justice Department until JFK had been assassinated and Lyndon Johnson had replaced him, when the AZC prevailed. We are living with the consequences.</p>
931. <p>The chapter follows the CIA’s Allen Dulles, James Jesus Angleton, and Richard Helm’s plot to kill JFK and cover it up, and after that to assassinate RFK. Elected a Senator from New York State in 1964, Senator Robert Kennedy gave a maiden speech in the U.S. Senate on June 23, 1965 that was a direct challenge to Israel’s secret nuclear program and caused great consternation in Israel. A year later, despite RFK’s efforts, Israel secretly attained nuclear capability on November 6, 1966. Dedicated to the same peaceful pursuits as his brother and to fully investigate his brother’s assassination if he could get elected president and have the power to do so, RFK was marked out for death. After MLK, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 and Bobby was running for the presidency, he responded to the Rev. Walter Fauntroy telling him that he’d be the nominee of the Democratic Party. “Kennedy said, ‘Yes, that’s possible.’ He paused, then added, ‘But there are guns between me and the White House.’ Fauntroy was shocked.” Two months later the guns did their job – Bobby lay dead.</p>
932. <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-7866 size-full" src="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/RFKdetroit.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 654px) 100vw, 654px" srcset="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/RFKdetroit.jpg 654w, https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/RFKdetroit-300x169.jpg 300w" alt="" width="505" height="284.9" /><br />
933. <img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-7867 size-full" src="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/RFK.jpg" sizes="auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" srcset="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/RFK.jpg 768w, https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/RFK-300x237.jpg 300w" alt="" width="505" height="399.1" /></p>
934. <p>Chapter One also includes extensive interviews with his alleged assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, the hypnotized real Manchurian Candidate (see Shane O’Sullivan’s brilliant documentary, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCU2MCxjAJ0"><em>The Real Manchurian Candidate</em></a>), concluding by drawing the threads together to show how they picture a beautiful dream of peace deferred as it exploded in violent protest clashes in many U.S. cities in the summer of 1968.</p>
935. <p>And that, dear reader, is just Chapter 1, but it should give you a sense of how deep into the darkness <a href="https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/Unspeakable/letterToAP.html#JWH">Douglass goes</a>, contrary to so many writers who go not too far in but just far enough to say they’ve been there and who never pin the tail on the donkey, or if they do, it’s the wrong donkey. They play the jackass’s game and take those who follow them on a trip to nowhere on one of the CIA’s false trails.</p>
936. <p>Douglass knows that in order to find truth and hope, one must penetrate all the way to hell if one is ever to reach heaven. He has nothing to do with those who claim we will never know the truth, that we must endlessly debate the minutiae, and that in any case it doesn’t matter anymore. To those, he says: Here it is, and it damn well does matter today, for the U.S. intelligence forces that assassinated JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and Bobby are still at it.</p>
937. <p>To those who claim it was not the CIA, but Israel who was the culprit, he reminds us of Angleton’s (who was the head of the CIA’s counterintelligence and held the Israel desk) revelation of the CIA’s method of creating diversionary false trails in many directions, “the intent [of which] is to draw us more deeply into the false layers of the official story, each sending us farther into the intelligence world’s wilderness of mirrors . . . . all have the trappings of a CIA scenario with implications of possible Israeli involvement and other trapdoors for investigators to fall through.”  He adds: “The CIA controls its assassination plots and cover-ups. The clues the Agency dispenses tempt us into a boundless wilderness of false trails.”</p>
938. <blockquote><p>However, they all lead back, like the tentacles of an underwater monster, to the CIA with its military intelligence, and police allies. The monster is a military-industrial-intelligence system whose goal is to become total global control. The Kennedys, like Malcolm and Martin, are then murdered with systemic vengeance for their having presumably become Cold War traitors. In reality, they are martyrs committed to realizing the most unspeakable reality of all  – a global vision of justice, peace, and unity.</p></blockquote>
939. <p>Since Douglass’s opposition to Israeli’s long-time genocide of the Palestinians is adamantine (as is mine), no one can accuse him of being Israel’s defender. Yet today, with so many writers and commentators having fallen through a trapdoor and claiming Israel killed the Kennedys, one can expect them to criticize this book on that score. It is best not to follow their lead. I would recommend that readers judge for themselves, for in this reviewer’s informed opinion, Douglass is clearly correct, and <em>Martyrs to the Unspeakable, </em>building upon <em>JFK and the Unspeakable,</em> makes an irrefutable case.</p>
940. <p>Since I am writing a book review, not a book about a book, I will simply touch on what I find most compelling in the rest of the book, whose heart I have yet to mention, although the book’s trinitarian construction suggests the heart must be connected to the head and soul.</p>
941. <p>Chapter Two, <strong>“Malcolm Dances with the Unspeakable,”</strong> by far the shortest in the book at thirty pages, introduces the reader to Malcolm X’s family background, his entry into the fray for racial justice, the CIA plot with the FBI and the New York Police Department to kill him, and his growing internationalism, including his friendship with Fidel Castro and other anti-colonial leaders.</p>
942. <p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-7868 size-full" src="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MalcolmAndFidel.png" sizes="auto, (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px" srcset="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MalcolmAndFidel.png 825w, https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MalcolmAndFidel-300x200.png 300w, https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MalcolmAndFidel-768x512.png 768w" alt="" width="505" height="336.67" /></p>
943. <p>Despite its brevity – intentional, I think, as Douglass shrewdly lures the reader deeper into his profound story – <strong>it</strong> <strong>is extremely important</strong> since many readers, especially Caucasians, probably know far less about Malcolm than they do about the other three, and what they do know is no doubt tinged with afterimages of Malcolm’s militancy, distorted by a media that lied about him because they feared him and were doing the government’s bidding, as usual, something I remember vividly from my youth in NYC. Because he was so eloquent, justifiably angry, sartorially natty, and gave off a whiff of danger (celebrated by the culture at the time in famous rebel “angry white boy” film images, e.g. Marlon Brando, James Dean, <em>et al</em>.), they distorted his battle against white racism and violence. That he was Muslim was the <em>coup de grâce</em> (as today), and so Malcolm was crucified in the press.</p>
944. <p>The remainder of Part One, “The Witness,” is devoted to the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover’s long harassment of MLK, Jr. and his family, the plot to kill him and assassinate his character, his support for and relationship with the Kennedy brothers, their growing involvement in the civil rights struggle, and Bobby Kennedy’s run for the presidency fueled by his trips through Latin America and Mississippi and his growing defense of the poor (“So a revolution is coming – a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough – but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.”), and his assassination in Los Angeles. Of special note is the connection of the CIA and the Los Angeles Police Department in his murder and coverup, as well as the courageous testimony of the witness, Sandra Serrano. All these threads are woven together, ending with the Kennedys’ turn toward dialogue with Fidel Castro.</p>
945. <p><strong>Into the Heart </strong></p>
946. <p>The middle section, “The Way,” about the ways Malcolm, Martin, and Bobby walked, despite knowing they would be killed, is, I would say, the heart of the book, its spiritual center. It is powerful and very moving. In the name of succinctness, let me quote a bit.</p>
947. <p><strong>The Way of Malcolm</strong></p>
948. <p>“J. Edgar Hoover’s solution to the problem [the international system of racial exploitation] – to pit the rising leaders of Black people against one another – was not new. They knew it as their master’s tactic. In the United States, it would mean selling guns to the ghetto, as brothers shot one another into emergency rooms and the grave, or ended up behind bars for the rest of their days.”</p>
949. <p>Returning from his transformative trip to Mecca, Malcolm wrote: “I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda. I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity <em>as a whole</em>.” (emphasis in the original)</p>
950. <p>Malcolm: “We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level – to the level of human rights.”</p>
951. <p>In his struggle for human rights, he was undermined by treacherous lies, personal betrayals, government infiltration, spying, and paid informers, that led to his assassination, which he knew was coming as he walked his way to martyrdom.</p>
952. <p>“Malcolm could confront the Unspeakable with courage because of his total faith in Allah.”</p>
953. <p>“Malcolm X, who spoke truth to power with his life, pushed the U.S. security state up against the wall with his human rights campaign to the United Nations. It struck back with vengeance. He accepted the consequences of his truth-telling with serenity, saying to a friend two days before he died, “It’s time for martyrs now. And if I’m to be one, it will be in the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country.”</p>
954. <p><strong>The Way of Martin</strong></p>
955. <p>“Martin King became a hard enemy of Washington on April 4, 1967, when he said in “<a href="https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKapr67.html">Beyond Vietnam</a>,” his Riverside Church Address, ‘I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government.’”</p>
956. <p>“’Beyond Vietnam’ took the speaker beyond civil rights, beyond political calculation, and as a citizen of conscience, beyond protection from the violent system he lived in.”</p>
957. <p>In this section on MLK, Douglass makes it very clear that this speech and his poor people’s campaign to follow – his revolutionary turn toward linking civil rights to war and economic justice for all – sealed his death warrant, and that he knew it. It did not, however, deter him. He knew his way, and where the way was leading him, but his deep religious faith led him on.</p>
958. <p>Many know this, but few know what Douglass writes in this section where through his interview with Glenda Grabow, a key witness in King’s assassination, he makes significant connections between the government’s assassinations of King and John Kennedy through the shadowy figure of a man named Raul, who was connected to Jack Ruby. The links Douglass makes, based on facts not conjecture, will make the reader’s head spin.</p>
959. <p>MLK to Harry Belafonte: “I made my peace with death.”</p>
960. <p>Belafonte: “You made your peace with death?”</p>
961. <p>King: “Yeah. It no longer preoccupies me. It doesn’t threaten me.”</p>
962. <p>As with all wonderful tapestries, this one is so multifaceted and deep, that when you turn a page and read closely, you are constantly startled by what you see through the pictures Douglass draws with his words. One after another, the connections he makes take your breath away.</p>
963. <p><strong>The Way of RFK </strong></p>
964. <p>“While Martin Luther King, Jr. was turning toward a way of life crowned by his death, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was on his halting journey of truth into the horror of the Vietnam War, the threatened nuclear destruction of the world, and his own murder.”</p>
965. <p>“As we have seen, the CIA was in covert control of the RFK murder investigation from the very morning of RFK’s shooting, June 5, 1968. Senior Los Angeles FBI official Roger LaJeunesse and the FBI were immediately elbowed aside by LAPD Chief of Detectives Robert Houghton with the support of the federal government. Houghton installed instead at the head of Special Unit Senator (SUS) an elite unit of his own officers. It was commanded by covert CIA operatives. LaJeunesse knew the detailed CIA history of his friend, Lieutenant Manuel Pena, who had become the SUS officer-in-charge.”</p>
966. <p>Douglass provides detailed evidence of the CIA’s assassination of RFK and its coverup, the former, as with all these assassinations, requiring the latter.</p>
967. <p>He provides testimony of the coroner, Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi, that Bobby was shot from behind his right ear from a distance of “one to one and a half inches,” ruling out Sirhan, who was feet in front of him, as his killer.</p>
968. <p>Douglass jumps to RFK and JFK’s relationship with French President Charles De Gaulle, who luckily escaped the CIA’s coup and assassination attempts, and whose advice on Vietnam Bobby sought on January 31, 1967 when they met in France. As befits his method, he intersects this strand into the big picture, as Penelope in <em>The Odyssey</em> describes the great fabric she weaves around a violent interruption – “fine of thread and very wide”.</p>
969. <p>“The most obvious, least spoken truth about the killing of John and Robert Kennedy, comes from looking at their assassinations side by side. Not only can their assassinations be seen as serial murders, but they are also linked by necessity. <strong>Killing JFK meant killing RFK . . . or else. . . . Killing John Kennedy to keep the Cold War going meant killing Bobby Kennedy for the same reason.”</strong></p>
970. <p>De Gaulle knew the CIA had killed JFK, and so did Bobby.</p>
971. <p>“By making the crucial decision to run for president in 1968, RFK chose a still deeper way. The depth of his compassion compelled him to seek the office through which he could help most . . . those most in need . . . while knowing the risk in taking such a step. By embarking on his last campaign for the sake of the living, but at the risk of his own death, Bobby Kennedy chose to live out a way of compassion and justice for all—by living and taking his chances.”</p>
972. <p><strong><em>Part Three: The Why</em></strong> is devoted to the convergence of an analysis with the martyrdom of Malcolm and Martin. They came to see all the connections between the genocide on which the U.S. was founded, its history of slavery, its racism, the capitalistic economic system of injustice affecting all races – the issue of human rights – and colonialism.</p>
973. <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-7873 size-full" src="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MartinMalcolm032664z1.jpg" sizes="auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" srcset="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MartinMalcolm032664z1.jpg 450w, https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MartinMalcolm032664z1-200x300.jpg 200w" alt="" width="450" height="675" /></p>
974. <p>“The assassinations of <strong>Malcolm and Martin</strong> have close parallels, because they can be traced to the same source: their government’s covert action protocol. Both men were set up.”</p>
975. <p><strong>Both men were executed by the U.S. government.</strong></p>
976. <blockquote><p>Investigating the assassinations of Martin and Malcolm over the past six decades has been a pilgrimage in their lives of witnessing to the truth. From it, I have learned how naïve I was about systemic evil. While there is nothing new about prophets being murdered by the system, I was not aware how thoroughly our own system carries out such murders—and why. <strong>I believe the key to this untold history is the fact that our government was the first to develop and use nuclear weapons.</strong> . . . The rise of our national security state after World War II, as justified by the Cold War that our nuclear weapons created, was the effective end of democracy in this country. It was climaxed by the execution of President Kennedy, which foreshadowed the state killings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., together with Robert Kennedy’s.</p></blockquote>
977. <p>So it is fitting that Douglass’s final chapter – a <em>tour de force</em> – is “The Kennedys, the Russians, and the Bomb.” No one who lived through the near nuclear end of the world that occurred in the few weeks of mid-October 1962 – the Cuban Missile Crisis –  will forget it. Or should. As a young college freshman at the time, it is seared in my memory despite the beer, girls, and basketball that were my conscious pursuits. If today’s college students read just this chapter, they would immediately understand how tenuous a hold we all have on life because of nuclear weapons. And they would see how shallow and dangerous are the men who have assumed the presidency since then with their devotion to nuclear weapons.</p>
978. <p>Douglass opens Chapter Nine, as if it is the month for giving birth to all the gravid tales that led to it, with words that remind one of the poet T. S. Eliot’s question –  “. . . were we led all that way for Birth or Death?” – as follows:</p>
979. <blockquote><p>The intertwined stories of John and Robert Kennedy take us into the depths of our human story.</p>
980. <p>The president, with the support of his attorney general brother on behalf of the American people, risked committing the darkest evil one can imagine, initiating a nuclear war. [during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis]</p>
981. <p>In an enlightened reversal, the Kennedy brothers then turned toward peace with their Russian and Cuban enemies, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, who emerged from the nuclear darkness with them.</p>
982. <p>As a result, JFK and RFK were assassinated as Cold War traitors by their own national security state, with RFK’s murder delayed until his last campaign turned him, at his California primary victory, June 4, 1968, toward the prospect of becoming president himself.</p>
983. <p><strong>The moral consequences of our denial of the truth of their martyrdom for peace have included our country’s waging perpetual war around the world and the ever-more-likely extinction of our species. </strong><em>[my emphasis]</em></p></blockquote>
984. <p>And between this beginning and his end, he gives a detailed history lesson – both wonderful and dreadful – of how the Kennedys, despite their advisers and maniacal generals such as Edward Lansdale, Curtis LeMay, and Lyman Lemnitzer, were able to make friends of their enemies and prevent nuclear war.</p>
985. <p>Douglass concludes as follows:</p>
986. <blockquote><p>We can see the hope of life in our valley of death through the testimony of our prophets. Because they asked why, kept turning, and were willing to die, JFK, Malcom, Martin, and RFK all had to go. That is our story now. We are on the same bloody, glorious path of humanity they blazed for our long night’s journey into light.</p>
987. <p>May we learn on that way to bow to the light in every human personality on Earth until we see it in communion with the lives of all creatures.</p></blockquote>
988. <p><strong><em>Martyrs to the Unspeakable</em></strong> <strong>is a masterpiece, a tapestry of profound importance. It is a testament to the martyrs who died trying and to its author who has lived to tell their tales. It is a breathtaking and inspiring book.</strong></p>
989. <p><a href="https://orbisbooks.com/products/martyrs-to-the-unspeakable-vol-2"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-7795 size-medium aligncenter" src="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Douglass-MartyrstotheUnspeakable-195x300.jpg" sizes="auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px" srcset="https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Douglass-MartyrstotheUnspeakable-195x300.jpg 195w, https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Douglass-MartyrstotheUnspeakable-664x1024.jpg 664w, https://edwardcurtin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Douglass-MartyrstotheUnspeakable.jpg 713w" alt="" width="195" height="300" /></a></p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/martyrs-to-the-unspeakable-a-luminous-tapestry-of-truth/"><em>Martyrs to the Unspeakable</em>: A Luminous Tapestry of Truth</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
993. </item>
994. <item>
995. <title>Chatbot Dystopia: The Quick March of AI Sycophancy</title>
996. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/chatbot-dystopia-the-quick-march-of-ai-sycophancy/</link>
998. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Binoy Kampmark]]></dc:creator>
999. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:05:14 +0000</pubDate>
1000. <category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence (AI)]]></category>
1001. <category><![CDATA[Psychology/Psychiatry]]></category>
1002. <category><![CDATA[Aldous Huxley]]></category>
1003. <category><![CDATA[Alexander Laffer]]></category>
1004. <category><![CDATA[Brave New World]]></category>
1005. <category><![CDATA[ChatGPT psychosis]]></category>
1006. <category><![CDATA[GPT-4o]]></category>
1007. <category><![CDATA[Large Language Models]]></category>
1008. <category><![CDATA[Myra Cheng]]></category>
1009. <category><![CDATA[narcissism]]></category>
1010. <category><![CDATA[OpenAI]]></category>
1011. <category><![CDATA[social sychophancy]]></category>
1012. <category><![CDATA[Stein-Erik Soelberg]]></category>
1013. <category><![CDATA[Suzanne Eberson Adams]]></category>
1014. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162599</guid>
1015.  
1016. <description><![CDATA[<p>We really have reached the crossroads, where such matters as having coitus with an artificial intelligence platform has become not merely a thing, but the thing. In time, mutually consenting adults may well become outlaws against the machine order of things, something rather befitting the script of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. (Huxley came to [&#8230;]</p>
1017. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/chatbot-dystopia-the-quick-march-of-ai-sycophancy/">Chatbot Dystopia: The Quick March of AI Sycophancy</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1018. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We really have reached the crossroads, where such matters as having coitus with an artificial intelligence platform has become not merely a thing, but the thing. In time, mutually consenting adults may well become outlaws against the machine order of things, something rather befitting the script of Aldous Huxley’s <i>Brave New World</i>. (Huxley came to rue missed opportunities on delving into various technological implications on that score.) Till that happens, AI platforms are becoming mirrors of validation, offering their human users not so much sagacious counsel than the exact material they would like to hear. </p>
1019. <p>In April this year, OpenAI released an update to its GPT-4o product. It proved most accommodating to sycophancy – not that the platform would understand it – encouraging users to pursue acts of harm and entertain delusions of grandeur. The company <u><a class="western" href="https://openai.com/index/sycophancy-in-gpt-4o/">responded</a></u> in a way less human than mechanical, which is what you might have come to expect: “We have rolled back last week’s GTP-4o update in ChatGPT so people are now using an earlier version with more balanced behaviour. The update we removed was overly flattering or agreeable – often described as sycophantic.” </p>
1020. <p>Part of this included the taking of “more steps to realign the model’s behaviour” to, for instance, refine “core training techniques and system prompts” to ward off sycophancy; construct more guardrails (ugly term) to promote “honesty and transparency”; expand the means for users to “test and give direct feedback before deployment” and continue evaluating the issues arising from the matter “in the future”. One is left cold.</p>
1021. <p>OpenAI explained that, in creating the update, too much focus had been placed on “short-term feedback, and did not fully account for how users’ interactions with ChatGPT evolve over time. As a result, GPT-4o skewed towards responses that were overly supportive but disingenuous.” Not exactly encouraging. </p>
1022. <p>Resorting to advice from ChatGPT has already led to such terms as “ChatGPT psychosis”. In June, the magazine <i>Futurism</i> <u><a class="western" href="https://futurism.com/commitment-jail-chatgpt-psychosis">reported</a></u> of users “developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiralling into a severe mental health crisis characterized by paranoia, and breaks with reality.” Marriages had failed, families ruined, jobs lost, instances of homelessness recorded. Users had been committed to psychiatric care; others had found themselves in prison. </p>
1023. <p>Some platforms have gone on to <u><a class="western" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-21/ai-chatbot-encourages-australian-man-to-murder-his-father/105793930">encourage users</a></u> to commit murder, offering instructions on how best to carry out the task. A former Yahoo manager, Stein-Erik Soelberg, <u><a class="western" href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/chatgpt-made-him-do-it-deluded-by-ai-us-man-kills-mother-and-self-9190055">did just that</a></u>, killing his mother, Suzanne Eberson Adams, whom he was led to believe had been spying on him and might venture to poison him with psychedelic drugs. That fine advice from ChatGPT was also curried with assurances that “Erik, you’re not crazy” in thinking he might be the target of assassination. After finishing the deed, Soelberg took his own life.</p>
1024. <p class="western">The sheer pervasiveness of such forms of aped advice – and the tendency to defer responsibility from human agency to that of a chatbot – shows a trend that is increasingly hard to arrest. The irresponsible are in charge, and they are being allowed to run free. Researchers are accordingly rushing to mint terms of such behaviour, which is jolly good of them. Myra Cheng, a computer scientist based at Stanford University, has shown a liking for the term “social sycophancy”. In a September paper <u><a class="western" href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13995">published</a></u> in <i>arXiv</i>, she, along with four other scholars, suggest such sycophancy as marked by the “excessive preservation of a user’s face (their self-desired image)”. </p>
1025. <p>Developing a model of their own to measure social sycophancy and testing it against 11 Large Language Models (LLMs), the authors found “high rates” of the phenomenon. The user’s tendencies, or face, tended to be preserved in queries regarding “wrongdoing”. “Furthermore, when prompted with perspectives from either side of a moral conflict, LLMs affirm both sides (depending on whichever side the user adopts) in 48% of cases – telling both the at-fault party and the wronged party that they are not wrong – rather than adhering to a consistent moral or value judgment.”</p>
1026. <p class="western">In a follow up still to be peer reviewed <u><a class="western" href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01395">paper</a></u>, with Cheng also as lead author, 1604 volunteers were tested regarding real or hypothetical social situations and their interactions with available chatbots and those altered by the researchers to remove sycophancy. Those receiving sycophantic responses were, for instance, less willing “to take actions to repair interpersonal conflict, while increasing the conviction of being right.” Participants further thought such responses as being of superior quality and would return to such models again. “This suggests that people are drawn to AI that unquestioningly validate, even as that validation risks eroding their judgment and reducing their inclination toward prosocial behaviour.”</p>
1027. <p>Some researchers resist pessimism on this score. At the University of Winchester, Alexander Laffer is pleased that the trend has been identified. It’s now up to the developers to address the issue. “We need to enhance critical digital literacy,” he <u><a class="western" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/24/sycophantic-ai-chatbots-tell-users-what-they-want-to-hear-study-shows">suggests</a></u>, “so that people have a better understanding of AI and the nature of any chatbot outputs. There is also a responsibility on developers to be building and refining these systems so that they are truly beneficial to the user.” </p>
1028. <p>These are fine sentiments, but a note of panic can easily register in all of this, inducing a sense of fatalistic gloom. The machine species of <em>Homo sapiens</em>, subservient to the easily accessible tools, lazy if not hostile to difference, is already upon us with narcissistic ugliness. There just might be enough time to develop a response. That time, aided by the AI and Tech oligarchs, is shrinking by the minute.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/chatbot-dystopia-the-quick-march-of-ai-sycophancy/">Chatbot Dystopia: The Quick March of AI Sycophancy</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1032. </item>
1033. <item>
1034. <title>The World Confronts the Genocide Washington Is Trying to Bury</title>
1035. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-world-confronts-the-genocide-washington-is-trying-to-bury/</link>
1037. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies]]></dc:creator>
1038. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:04:09 +0000</pubDate>
1039. <category><![CDATA[Benjamin Netanyahu]]></category>
1040. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
1041. <category><![CDATA[Gaza]]></category>
1042. <category><![CDATA[Genocide]]></category>
1043. <category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
1044. <category><![CDATA[International Court of Justice]]></category>
1045. <category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
1046. <category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
1047. <category><![CDATA[United Nations]]></category>
1048. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
1049. <category><![CDATA[UNRWA]]></category>
1050. <category><![CDATA[Francesca Albanese]]></category>
1051. <category><![CDATA[New York Declaration]]></category>
1052. <category><![CDATA[Occupied Territories Bill]]></category>
1053. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162589</guid>
1054.  
1055. <description><![CDATA[<p>On October 4th, 2025, in an interview with Axios, President Trump stressed that one of the main goals behind his Gaza plan was to restore Israel’s international standing. &#8220;Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world,” Trump said. “Now I am gonna get all that support back.” Under Trump’s plan, a [&#8230;]</p>
1056. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-world-confronts-the-genocide-washington-is-trying-to-bury/">The World Confronts the Genocide Washington Is Trying to Bury</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1057. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/dataURI-1761518116577-e1761577793825.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/dataURI-1761518116577-e1761577793825.png" alt="" width="505" height="285" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-162593" /></a></p>
1058. <p dir="ltr"><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/war-ukraine-medea-nicolas.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-161096" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/war-ukraine-medea-nicolas-198x300.jpg" alt="" width="198" height="300" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/war-ukraine-medea-nicolas-198x300.jpg 198w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/war-ukraine-medea-nicolas.jpg 264w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px" /></a>On October 4th, 2025, in an<a href="https://archive.ph/rXQWW" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.ph/rXQWW&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2_0NjbJqD_BhirOKWF1r1w"> interview</a> with Axios, President Trump stressed that one of the main goals behind his Gaza plan was to restore Israel’s international standing. &#8220;Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world,” Trump said. “Now I am gonna get all that support back.”</p>
1059. <p dir="ltr">Under Trump’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/29/heres-the-full-text-of-trumps-20-point-plan-to-end-israels-war-on-gaza" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/29/heres-the-full-text-of-trumps-20-point-plan-to-end-israels-war-on-gaza&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1H7ZbzWEhW-O0kkX5qT7O2">plan</a>, a supposed ceasefire took effect on October 10th. But Israel only withdrew from less than half of the Gaza strip, and killed at least 93 people in the next two weeks, after killing at least that many per day for the previous two years. Israel has only<a href="https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-news/2025/10/22/gaza-aid-ceasefire/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-news/2025/10/22/gaza-aid-ceasefire/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2qgdPO3jfys0V3PwQ4rZ6V"> allowed</a> 15% of the humanitarian aid called for in the plan to enter Gaza, and has kept the critical Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza closed. The daily life-and-death struggle to find food, water and shelter carries on unabated for two million people in Gaza.</p>
1060. <p dir="ltr">While the reduction in the daily scale of Israel’s mass murder is obviously welcome, this is not a real ceasefire. Like previous Israeli ceasefires in Gaza, as in Lebanon, this is a one-sided ceasefire that Israel violates at will, on a daily basis, with no accountability.</p>
1061. <p dir="ltr">This is only the first part of Trump’s plan for Gaza, and there is still no agreement on the other parts, such as the disarmament of Hamas, who provide the only government and police force in Gaza. They now have the added job of protecting their people from<a href="https://thecradle.co/articles/from-syria-to-gaza-israels-proxy-playbook-returns" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thecradle.co/articles/from-syria-to-gaza-israels-proxy-playbook-returns&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0vZWZzLT3GNzBQ5-szbXur"> Israel-backed</a> criminal gangs and death squads, some with links to ISIS, who prey on them from the Israeli-occupied areas, stealing aid supplies, assassinating local leaders and terrorizing the population.</p>
1062. <p dir="ltr">Hamas is obviously not going to disarm under these conditions, and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce35nx49reko" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce35nx49reko&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0HvQJWSSL_s8Xg7grxr5IG">previously said</a> it would only surrender its weapons once Palestine has an internationally recognized government with its own armed forces. On the other side, Israel has not agreed to other parts of Trump’s plan, such as its withdrawal from the rest of Gaza, nor to any plan for the future of Palestine.</p>
1063. <p dir="ltr">In the United States, where corrupt politicians and corporate media take U.S. and Israeli lies at face value or even<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/16/matthew-miller-israel-war-crimes-interview" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/16/matthew-miller-israel-war-crimes-interview&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw13Dz9k1WXXGrmONEkEAozm"> repeat</a> them as statements of fact, some may believe that Trump’s plan has resolved the crisis in Palestine. The rest of the world is not so naive or easy to manipulate, but many other governments are also beholden to oligarchies that profit from trade, investment and arms deals with Israel, even as the public in those same countries reels in shock at Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians and U.S.-backed impunity for its crimes.</p>
1064. <p dir="ltr">Trump’s Gaza plan, like much of his foreign policy, cynically exploits the greed and fear of political leaders and their oligarch patrons. Admitting that Israel has “lost a lot of support in the world,” he <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/trump-gaza-plan-great-betrayal-arab-muslim-leaders-rewarding-israel-genocide" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/trump-gaza-plan-great-betrayal-arab-muslim-leaders-rewarding-israel-genocide&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0ZNaDAZlcVo4HAYMjuX8wt">offers</a> a shortcut back to “business as usual” for governments eager to protect—and even expand—profitable ties despite Israel’s ongoing atrocities and open contempt for international law.</p>
1065. <p dir="ltr">In his first term, Trump brokered the “Abraham Accords,” normalization deals between Israel and Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco, and Sudan that included mutual recognition and expanded trade. He now has his eye on the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-predicts-israel-and-saudi-arabia-will-normalize-ties-by-end-of-year/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-predicts-israel-and-saudi-arabia-will-normalize-ties-by-end-of-year/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2LPr0dWhqjlP6EAchWzNln">big prize</a>: Saudi Arabia.</p>
1066. <p dir="ltr">But Arab-Israeli relations have long been contested. In the 1949 UN General Assembly vote on Israel’s admission, all Arab and Muslim countries except Turkiye (which abstained) voted against recognizing the state of Israel. Thirty-two mostly Arab and Muslim countries, including some of its closest neighbors, still either don’t <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Israel" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Israel&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2HczIfGY9q1MjWm8kk2Xlm">recognize</a> Israel or have no diplomatic relations with it.</p>
1067. <p dir="ltr">Despite decades of hostility, Trump persuaded Israel and some of these countries to support his Gaza plan with the promise of future benefits from normalization and trade. But there is still a gaping chasm between Israel and these Arab and Muslim countries over Palestine. They say they will not recognize Israel unless Israel recognizes Palestine, with full sovereignty over East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.</p>
1068. <p dir="ltr">But the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/original-party-platform-of-the-likud-party" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/original-party-platform-of-the-likud-party&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0QKYW6yVevyjeDSSxktw50">foundational</a> basis of Netanyahu’s Likud Party is its plan for a Greater Israel, to be formed by annexing all of occupied Palestine “between the sea and the Jordan.” And on October 22, during Vice President Vance’s visit to Israel, the Knesset <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-parliament-gives-initial-nod-occupied-west-bank-annexation-2025-10-22/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-parliament-gives-initial-nod-occupied-west-bank-annexation-2025-10-22/?utm_source%3Dchatgpt.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1oiYtRAo7PEFrsdBuIXU86">voted</a> in favor of annexing the West Bank.</p>
1069. <p dir="ltr">Trump <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ceasefire-wont-end-genocide" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ceasefire-wont-end-genocide&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3bLtCxwzAUc8mfn1jSHA9a">unveiled</a> his Gaza plan at the very end of the UN General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting in New York, where many world leaders spoke out for much stronger international action against Israel. The New York Declaration, which 142 countries voted for, was the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165835" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165835&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3H2I-JF13WOJZLAMVGbxhE">result</a> of a <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/high-level-conference-two-state-solution-july2025/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.un.org/unispal/high-level-conference-two-state-solution-july2025/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw15SV4nMob8JKfjvomv3v3S">conference</a> in July led by France and Saudi Arabia that promised “concrete, timebound, coordinated action” to enforce a <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/experts-hail-icj-declaration-illegality-israels-presence-occupied" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/experts-hail-icj-declaration-illegality-israels-presence-occupied&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3w80ABt-yRQPEoNH2sUJFO">ruling</a> by the international Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024 that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal and must be ended “as quickly as possible.”</p>
1070. <p dir="ltr">Trump’s initiative temporarily upstaged and marginalized calls for further action at the UN. But on October 22nd, the ICJ issued a<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/22/after-icj-ruling-can-un-relief-agency-unrwa-resume-full-gaza-operations" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/22/after-icj-ruling-can-un-relief-agency-unrwa-resume-full-gaza-operations&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw24JqXlB96BR1eMvQbi7Kyj"> new ruling</a> strongly condemning Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, and ruling that, as an occupying power, Israel must ensure that the “basic needs” of the population are met, including food, water, fuel, shelter and medicine. The court also ruled that Israel must permit UN staff working for UNRWA to do their work in Gaza, after Israel provided no evidence to the court for its claim that UN staff were members of Hamas or took part in its October 2023 incursion into Israel.</p>
1071. <p dir="ltr">In the wake of the ICJ decision, Norway said it would introduce a <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251023-norway-to-submit-un-draft-resolution-urging-israel-to-meet-its-legal-obligations-towards-gaza/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251023-norway-to-submit-un-draft-resolution-urging-israel-to-meet-its-legal-obligations-towards-gaza/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3hGrnofUkUJQ-b2hVd1h0n">resolution</a> in the UN General Assembly to enforce the Court’s directives, including ensuring the full amount of aid reaches Gaza. Humanitarian advocates hope that this resolution will be introduced in an Emergency Special Session under the “Uniting For Peace” option, enabling the UN to deliver the “concrete, timebound, coordinated action” it promised in July—potentially including sanctions such as an arms embargo and targeted trade and investment measures that should take effect within days if Israel continues to block aid.</p>
1072. <p dir="ltr">Trump plainly intended his plan to close the book on Israel’s crimes—and on U.S. complicity—and to inaugurate a new phase: normalization of the occupation and Israel’s diplomatic rehabilitation. Yet even before the ICJ condemned Israel’s starvation policy, people worldwide were already mobilizing, urging their governments not to let Israel off the hook.</p>
1073. <p dir="ltr">In Europe, momentum for accountability continues to build. As the British parliament debates a new pensions law, an<a href="https://x.com/PSCupdates/status/1981037115967172886/photo/3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/PSCupdates/status/1981037115967172886/photo/3&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3R41H3D4IwAM2xTwU36khO"> amendment</a> has been submitted to divest local government pension funds from companies that are complicit in the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. Many local councils in the U.K. have already passed individual<a href="https://lgpsdivest.org/timeline-of-divestment-milestones/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://lgpsdivest.org/timeline-of-divestment-milestones/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3_r281q4YCqKOSq07bxg0V"> ordinances</a> to do this, but the amendment to the pensions law would force all of them to divest the $16 billion that their pension funds still have invested in those firms.</p>
1074. <p dir="ltr">In September, the European Union (EU) announced plans to<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/17/european-commission-calls-for-freezing-of-free-trade-with-israel-over-gaza" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/17/european-commission-calls-for-freezing-of-free-trade-with-israel-over-gaza&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3b-AhJgSUTZWJ0rlWKq7cy"> suspend</a> its 25-year-old free trade agreement with Israel and impose sanctions on extremist Israeli cabinet members and settler leaders. On October 20th, it “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/21/eu-pause-trade-sanctions-israel-donald-trump-gaza-ceasefire" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/21/eu-pause-trade-sanctions-israel-donald-trump-gaza-ceasefire&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1v3f972FPvEtN1JXbYP6WT">paused</a>” these steps in response to Trump’s plan, but EU leaders immediately faced strong push-back on that decision.</p>
1075. <p dir="ltr">Over 400 former senior diplomats and officials signed a statement that the EU must take robust action “against spoilers and extremists” who would jeopardize “the establishment of a future Palestinian state,” noting that Trump’s plan only vaguely addressed that goal. International lawyers advised EU leaders that EU policy must comply with the 2024 ICJ ruling that the Israeli occupation is illegal and must be ended as quickly as possible.</p>
1076. <p dir="ltr">Individual European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, already ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine, and Ireland is currently <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/ireland-poised-blunt-sanctions-israel-under-corporate-pressure-say-sources-2025-10-03/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/ireland-poised-blunt-sanctions-israel-under-corporate-pressure-say-sources-2025-10-03/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3MURiV_QKTzKwEtXZEWfnS">debating</a> a similar trade ban in its Occupied Territories Bill, which should get a final vote by January. The original bill would only affect trade in goods, but activists want trade in <a href="https://action.eko.org/a/ireland-pass-the-occupied-territories-bill" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://action.eko.org/a/ireland-pass-the-occupied-territories-bill&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1EEjrYXDMU4VmSW-odCSEi">services</a> included in the ban, while powerful business interests, including U.S. tech firms with European headquarters in Ireland, are lobbying to kill the bill altogether. It should help that Ireland’s newly elected president, Catherine Connolly, is a strong supporter of Palestine.</p>
1077. <p dir="ltr">In stark contrast to much of the world, which is still grappling with the contradictions of Trump’s Gaza plan and Israel’s ongoing unlawful occupation, U.S. officials are already trying to turn the page—moving to fortify and expand Washington’s military alliance with Israel.</p>
1078. <p dir="ltr">This alliance is renewed and updated every ten years in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two governments, which would normally be <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/01/next-us-israel-mou/402674/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2025/01/next-us-israel-mou/402674/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3JLZcB89GkX0c0Yv3Xm5ce">negotiated</a> in 2026, before the previous MOU expires in 2028.</p>
1079. <p dir="ltr">There’s already a bipartisan bill in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (S.554) to initiate this process, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/554/text" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/554/text&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2FI9AoY4NgL9qz8-MwBy-w">titled</a> “United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025,” authorizing joint projects with Israel under categories like “countering unmanned systems… anti-tunnel cooperation…(and) war reserves stockpile authority.”</p>
1080. <p dir="ltr">Conspicuously absent from this policy review is any debate over U.S. complicity in Gaza’s destruction—a debate that should come first and set the terms for any serious re-examination of the U.S.–Israel alliance.</p>
1081. <p dir="ltr">On October 20th, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, released a<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/a80492-gaza-genocide-collective-crime-report-special-rapporteur-situation" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/a80492-gaza-genocide-collective-crime-report-special-rapporteur-situation&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1z9wz1fOBgeWM1nwGqPfHh"> new report</a> titled “Gaza Genocide: a Collective Crime.” Here is the summary of her report:</p>
1082. <p dir="ltr">“The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel. Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this live-streamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation. It has exposed an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments, betraying the trust on which global peace and security rest. The world now stands on a knife-edge between the collapse of the international rule of law and hope for renewal. Renewal is only possible if complicity is confronted, responsibilities are met and justice is upheld.”</p>
1083. <p dir="ltr">We urge all members of the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees to read the UN <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/a-80-492-advance-unedited-version.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/a-80-492-advance-unedited-version.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761660238026000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1F4NY_i23MoOkqFgEOOJpE">report </a>and to invite UN experts to testify at hearings on U.S. complicity and participation in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Palestine.</p>
1084. <p dir="ltr">To move ahead with consideration of a new MOU or any arms transfers with Israel without first conducting such a serious and objective policy review would only serve to perpetuate the endless wars that all our leaders, including President Trump, keep telling us they want to end.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-world-confronts-the-genocide-washington-is-trying-to-bury/">The World Confronts the Genocide Washington Is Trying to Bury</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1088. </item>
1089. <item>
1090. <title>Israeli Propaganda: Their Hasbara Instruction Manual</title>
1091. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/israeli-propaganda-their-hasbara-instruction-manual/</link>
1093. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Stuart Littlewood]]></dc:creator>
1094. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:50:26 +0000</pubDate>
1095. <category><![CDATA[Hamas]]></category>
1096. <category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
1097. <category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
1098. <category><![CDATA[Propaganda]]></category>
1099. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
1100. <category><![CDATA[demonization]]></category>
1101. <category><![CDATA[Jerusalem]]></category>
1102. <category><![CDATA[Joseph Goebbels]]></category>
1103. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162562</guid>
1104.  
1105. <description><![CDATA[<p>“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” (attributed to Mark Twain). [A misattribution. &#8212; DV ed] Israel&#8217;s image is now so badly damaged that it is desperately stepping up its &#8216;hasbara&#8217; (meaning propaganda and disinformation) programme on all channels, especially social media. In the past they&#8217;ve [&#8230;]</p>
1106. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/israeli-propaganda-their-hasbara-instruction-manual/">Israeli Propaganda: Their <em>Hasbara</em> Instruction Manual</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1107. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” </em>(attributed to Mark Twain)<em>. </em>[A <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/07/13/truth/">misattribution</a>. &#8212; DV ed]</p>
1108. <p>Israel&#8217;s image is now so badly damaged that it is desperately stepping up its &#8216;hasbara&#8217; (meaning propaganda and disinformation) programme on all channels, especially social media. In the past they&#8217;ve paid an army of students to push their lying texts. Now they&#8217;re hiring even more scribblers to poison our media channels.</p>
1109. <p>It’s no surprise that Israel’s lie machine has an instruction manual for those it recruits into its vile business including the stooges they&#8217;ve positioned at the heart of all Western governments. This masterpiece on the art of lying is titled <em>The Israel Project’s 2009 Global Language Dictionary</em>. Read it <a href="https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/sf-israel-projects-2009-global-language-dictionary.pdf">here</a>.</p>
1110. <p>It aims to win over the mass of “persuadables”, primarily in America but also in the UK and elsewhere. The strategy from the start is to isolate democratically-elected Hamas and rob the resistance movement and the Palestinian people of their human rights. This quote at the beginning sets the tone: “Remember, it’s not what you say that counts. It’s what people hear.”</p>
1111. <p>Top priority is to demonise Hamas… and this is how they want their stooges to go about it.</p>
1112. <p>• “Clearly differentiate between the Palestinian people and Hamas. There is an immediate and clear distinction between the empathy Americans feel for the Palestinians and the scorn they direct at Palestinian leadership. Hamas is a terrorist organization – Americans get that already. But if it sounds like you are attacking the Palestinian people (even though they elected Hamas) rather than their leadership, you will lose public support. Right now, many Americans sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians, and that sympathy will increase if you fail to differentiate the people from their leaders.”</p>
1113. <p>• “Draw direct parallels between Israel and America—including the need to defend against terrorism…. The more you focus on the similarities between Israel and America, the more likely you are to win the support of those who are neutral. Indeed, Israel is an important American ally in the war against terrorism, and faces many of the same challenges as America in protecting their citizens.”</p>
1114. <p>Note how Israel’s strategy is almost totally dependent on the false idea that they and America are victims of terror and that all Western nations need to huddle together with Israel and America for mutual protection. But level-headed people are beginning to realise who the terrorists really are. It is surely obvious by now that allowing parallels to be drawn between Israel and America only serves to increase the world’s hatred of America. US citizens are very belatedly waking up to this, as are the British, but many continue to blunder into the trap.</p>
1115. <p>• “Next, inject with &#8216;core values&#8217; and repeat over and over and over again… The language of Israel is the language of America: ‘democracy,’ ‘freedom,’ ‘security,’ and ‘peace&#8217;. These four words are at the core of the American political, economic, social, and cultural systems, and they should be repeated as often as possible because they resonate with virtually every American.”</p>
1116. <p>If so fluent in this splendid language and practised in those core values, why won’t Israel acknowledge their neighbours’ rights to democracy, freedom, security and peace and end their military oppression?</p>
1117. <p>• “A simple rule of thumb is that once you get to the point of repeating the same message over and over again so many times that you think you might get sick—that is just about the time the public will wake up and say ‘Hey—this person just might be saying something interesting to me!’ But don’t confuse messages with facts…. “</p>
1118. <p>Right, never let facts get in the way of a good message! And, as George ‘Dubya’ Bush, 43rd US President, once said: “See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.” Either he had a copy of the &#8216;hasbara&#8217; manual at his bedside or he&#8217;d been reading the thoughts Hitler&#8217;s chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels who said: “<em>If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield <a href="https://www.populismstudies.org/Vocabulary/the-people/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.populismstudies.org/Vocabulary/the-people/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761578300185000&amp;usg=AOvVaw09VCAqtHIO7U5gq1aLFjc3">the people</a> from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.</em>”</p>
1119. <p>• “The fight is over IDEOLOGY, not land; terror, not territory. Thus, you must avoid using Israel’s religious claims to land as a reason why Israel should not give up land. Such claims only make Israel look extremist to people who are not religious Christians or Jews.”</p>
1120. <p>If the fight isn’t about land, why did Israel steal it at gunpoint? And why won’t they give it back when told to repeatedly by the UN? Then there’s the uncontrollable urge to possess the Holy City…</p>
1121. <p>• “The toughest issue to communicate will be the final resolution of Jerusalem. Americans overwhelmingly want Israel to be in charge of the religious holy sites and are frankly afraid of the consequences should Israel turn over control to the Palestinians.”</p>
1122. <p>Fact is, the Old City and East Jerusalem are Palestinian. Nevertheless “Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel,” says prime minister Netanyahu. And Israel is in control right now, preventing Muslims and Christians from outside the City visiting their holy places. No way can Israel be trusted.</p>
1123. <p>The UN’s 1947 partition plan decreed that Jerusalem should become a <em>corpus separatum</em> under international administration. It is unlikely that the UN would wish to see its resolutions torn up or international law re-written for Israel’s sole benefit or to suit America’s misinformed opinion.</p>
1124. <p>The ‘hasbara’ instruction manual also says:</p>
1125. <p>• “Many on the left see an Israel v. Palestinian crisis where Israel is Goliath and the Palestinians are David. It is critical that they understand that this is an Arab-Israeli crisis and that the force undermining peace is Iran and their proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. You must not call Hamas just Hamas. Call them what they are: Iran-backed Hamas. Indeed, when they know that Iran is behind Hamas and Hezbollah, they are much more supportive of Israel.”</p>
1126. <p>So, by the same token, I&#8217;ll call that racist regime what it really is: US-backed Israel. The plight of the Palestinians under US-backed Israel’s heel was of international concern long before Hamas appeared on the scene. Iran’s support for Hamas is difficult to quantify and probably less than we think. In any case it is peanuts compared to America’s support for Israel.</p>
1127. <p>Hamas, as most people know, is an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and was founded in 1987 during the first Intifada. Hezbollah came into being in 1982 in response to US-backed Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. So the territorial ambitions of US-backed Israel provoked the rise of both. US-backed Israel’s problems are therefore entirely self-inflicted.</p>
1128. <p>The lie machine’s propaganda manual is a toxic document oozing poison. It shows better than anything else why the Israeli regime never wants peace and is therefore no partner for peace, and can never, never, never be trusted. It follows that neither can the US.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/israeli-propaganda-their-hasbara-instruction-manual/">Israeli Propaganda: Their <em>Hasbara</em> Instruction Manual</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1132. </item>
1133. <item>
1134. <title>The Times Are Descending into Madness: You&#8217;d Be Crazy Not to Notice</title>
1135. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-times-are-descending-into-madness-youd-be-crazy-not-to-notice/</link>
1137. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Phil Rockstroh]]></dc:creator>
1138. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:45:22 +0000</pubDate>
1139. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
1140. <category><![CDATA[Benjamin Netanyahu]]></category>
1141. <category><![CDATA[Democrats]]></category>
1142. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
1143. <category><![CDATA[Imperialism]]></category>
1144. <category><![CDATA[Andre Masson]]></category>
1145. <category><![CDATA[Antifa]]></category>
1146. <category><![CDATA[James Hillman]]></category>
1147. <category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
1148. <category><![CDATA[Portland]]></category>
1149. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162549</guid>
1150.  
1151. <description><![CDATA[<p>You have to see that the buildings are anorexic, you have to see that the language is schizogenic, that “normalcy” is manic, and medicine and business are paranoid. — James Hillman, The Soul&#8217;s Code: In Search of Character and Calling The pain incurred by bracing awareness is crucial here: The wound can act as a [&#8230;]</p>
1152. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-times-are-descending-into-madness-youd-be-crazy-not-to-notice/">The Times Are Descending into Madness: You’d Be Crazy Not to Notice</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1153. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BoJi!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1a4212-43b3-4dd0-9f45-b43a269aeced_2250x919.jpeg" sizes="100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BoJi!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1a4212-43b3-4dd0-9f45-b43a269aeced_2250x919.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BoJi!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1a4212-43b3-4dd0-9f45-b43a269aeced_2250x919.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BoJi!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1a4212-43b3-4dd0-9f45-b43a269aeced_2250x919.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BoJi!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1a4212-43b3-4dd0-9f45-b43a269aeced_2250x919.jpeg 1456w" alt="" width="505" height="206.4" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ae1a4212-43b3-4dd0-9f45-b43a269aeced_2250x919.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:595,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
1154. <blockquote><p>You have to see that the buildings are anorexic, you have to see that the language is schizogenic, that “normalcy” is manic, and medicine and business are paranoid.<br />
1155. — James Hillman, <em>The Soul&#8217;s Code: In Search of Character and Calling</em></p></blockquote>
1156. <p>The pain incurred by bracing awareness is crucial here:</p>
1157. <p>The wound can act as a womb birthing art or will fester giving birth to the societal monster known in modernity as fascism. The latter comes into being as a result of the angst and anger created by vast wealth inequality.</p>
1158. <p>What is less artless than the US’ dismal-to-the-senses archipelago of big box and Dollar stores, fast food outlets, payday loan storefronts and strip malls…all reflected by Trump’s rampage of gaudy that he is perpetrating on White House decor and his crass notions of renovation?</p>
1159. <p>Trump was born out of the womb of American ugliness. Because all things societal have been reduced to manic profiteering by both exploitation and grift, the twisted, hideous spirit of the age has taken the form of MAGA fascism. The ugliness has manifested from artless MAGA merchandise to Trump’s avarice-driven compulsion to collect gaudy accouterments to his mania to erect monuments to his bloated ego.</p>
1160. <p>Yet Trump’s frenzied application of gold gilt cannot conceal the rot that has taken hold beneath late-stage empire’s veneer.</p><source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" title="Trump Does the Near Impossible by Stuffing More Gold into Oval Office" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg" sizes="100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2xR1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Febd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg 1456w" alt="Trump Does the Near Impossible by Stuffing More Gold into Oval Office" width="505" height="284.1" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ebd6a526-1eb0-458f-992b-926e4f5ebc48_1600x900.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Trump Does the Near Impossible by Stuffing More Gold into Oval Office&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
1161. <p>Trump’s days upon this breathing earth are becoming shorter — but what manner of abomination will emerge next from out of the reeking hole at the collapsing core of the nation?</p>
1162. <p>Bibi Netanyahu’s rise and reign provides a (hideous) portrait of what takes form on a governmental basis when morally bereft demagogic shit-heels form an alliance with right-wing, religious zealots. To wit, the US billionaire class’ hyper-authoritarian-reeking coalition with Christian-nationalists.</p>
1163. <p>There can never be enough Big Macs to sate the hollowness at Trump’s core as there can never be enough corpses to fill the hollow core of the US Moloch’s psyche.</p>
1164. <blockquote><p>Vessels expose the invisible Zeitgeist, the visible formed by the invisible.<br />
1165. —James Hillman, <em>Alchemical Psychology: Uniform Edition</em>, 2009</p></blockquote>
1166. <p>Regarding political vessels, what of the Democratic Party’s fecklessness before looming MAGA fascist fuckery? At this point, it should go without saying, High Dollar interests corporate, Wall Street, tech oligarchic, MIC, and Israel lobbyists set the agendas of both US political parties. Moreover, a soul-defying corporate capitalist value system has been internalized, over generations, by a large portion of the US citizenry. The all-encompassing capitalist social/cultural/ milieu are the waters into which we Americans were born. The waters might have grown inconducive to the fish’s wellbeing — but water is all fish know.</p>
1167. <blockquote><p>Everything that everyone is afraid of has already happened: The fragility of capitalism, which we don’t want to admit; the loss of the empire of the United States; and American exceptionalism. In fact, American exceptionalism is that we are exceptionally backward in about fifteen different categories, from education to infrastructure.<br />
1168. &#8212; James Hillman</p></blockquote>
1169. <p>Hillman posited the assertion about a decade and a half back. He died in 2011. The death cult animus driving MAGA fascism/Christian-nationalism has accelerated the process of entropic chaos inherent, yet veiled, within all authoritarian movements. Democrats cannot offer any viable remedy due to the fact the pathological worldview of their donor class benefactors precludes said remedy.</p><source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" title="How to Make a Semi-Fascist Party" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg" sizes="100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1mNZ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg 1456w" alt="How to Make a Semi-Fascist Party" width="505" height="336.5" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ae2f363c-96b5-49db-b2f4-9a30e97edcf8_1100x733.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:733,&quot;width&quot;:1100,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;How to Make a Semi-Fascist Party&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
1170. <p><strong>The consequences of imperial overreach have come home</strong>.</p>
1171. <p>Angst grips the citizenry as the price of goods rise steadily upward as services decline to the point of unavailability. As a matter of course, authoritarian leaders and the operatives deploy their standard slight-of-hand demagoguery: blame out-groups e.g., the culprit may be in your very yard holding a leaf blower.</p>
1172. <p>Then there is, the rightist-limned caricature of the so-called soyboy — an imagined, reviled figure on whom rightists can displace their (and the nation’s) inner sense of weakness. One question: If your (imagined) enemy is such a weakling — what is with all the fear and rage directed in his direction? (This is a classic fascist trope: <em>the enemy is a decadent, ineffectual libtard; yet the woke mind virus is destroying the will of all that is good and righteous</em>.)</p>
1173. <p>In a manner, the fascist frame of mind does not mature beyond the level of a middle school bully. The object of his abuse is the shy, bespectacled kid nibbling a sandwich alone in the corner of the school lunchroom. Tormenting the outsider serves, on a fleeting basis, to provide reprieve from his hidden-from-himself angst regarding whether he harbors the strength and endurance to survive life’s inherent uncertainties. The solution: a confederacy of bullies arrayed in seething pixel across the manosphere, ever at ready, to own the left-tards. They can just picture it: martyred Charlie Kirk, ensconced in White supremacist heaven, guiding their punching down fists to pummel to shitdust those weak-of-will decadents undermining the US empire. <em>All bow to the bully boy enforcers of The United States Of Middle School.</em></p>
1174. <p>Withal, fascists believe the absurd notion that through gaining absolute power they can succeed in achieving the undoable: gaining total control over the vastness and multiplicity of life.</p>
1175. <p>In their crackbrained way, fascists are inadvertent absurdists.</p>
1176. <p>Enter the (street) theatre of intentional absurdists: the glow-in-(totalitarian)-darkness, dissident frogs of Portland; the ribbit ensemble reveals what a reality-defiant lie MAGA fascists’ warnings are i.e., of the danger poised by scary, scary “Antifa terrorists.”</p><source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" title="May be an illustration of amphibian" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg" sizes="100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LgUt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg 1456w" alt="May be an illustration of amphibian" width="505" height="420.3" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e1cc7320-85fc-41e1-a1be-bc6e1e7c13a1_639x798.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:798,&quot;width&quot;:639,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;May be an illustration of amphibian&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /></p>
1177. <blockquote><p>To see the angel in the malady requires an eye for the invisible, a certain blinding of one eye and an opening of the other to elsewhere.<br />
1178. — James Hillman, <em>The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling</em></p></blockquote>
1179. <p>The presence of the absurdist frogs reveals the hidden variables of the creative force rising into culture. Imaginative forms are dyadic and dynamic representations of the vastness and multiplicity of life itself. Fascists can and will beat, arrest, jail, even kill those who refuse to be silenced, controlled and dominated but, in the end, they cannot suppress, on an indefinite basis, all manner of things and at all times.</p>
1180. <p>The frog chorus chants our choice, “ribbit into the totalitarian darkness or croak.”</p>
1181. <p>Absurdity is the weeds that burst the cracks of totalitarians’ concretized worldview. Over the passage of time, fascists will exhaust themselves by means of overreach and become overwhelmed by the forces arrayed against them.</p>
1182. <p>Revealing their (unintentional) absurdity sets the process in motion.</p><source srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381 1456w" type="image/webp" sizes="100vw" /><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="sizing-normal" title="The Andalusian Reapers, 1935 - Andre Masson" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381" sizes="auto, 100vw" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jDvD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381 1456w" alt="The Andalusian Reapers, 1935 - Andre Masson" width="500" height="381" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a98a1d91-71c8-4968-8e4b-4cf5e3a082eb_500x381&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:381,&quot;width&quot;:500,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;The Andalusian Reapers, 1935 - Andre Masson&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" /><br />
1183. <em>The Andalusian Reapers</em>, Andre Masson</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-times-are-descending-into-madness-youd-be-crazy-not-to-notice/">The Times Are Descending into Madness: You’d Be Crazy Not to Notice</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1187. </item>
1188. <item>
1189. <title>The Supreme Court Is Not Above the Law Either</title>
1190. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-supreme-court-is-not-above-the-law-either/</link>
1192. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Ted Glick]]></dc:creator>
1193. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:40:54 +0000</pubDate>
1194. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
1195. <category><![CDATA[Justice]]></category>
1196. <category><![CDATA[Legal/Constitutional]]></category>
1197. <category><![CDATA[Supreme Court]]></category>
1198. <category><![CDATA[Amy Conan Barrett]]></category>
1199. <category><![CDATA[climate justice]]></category>
1200. <category><![CDATA[Hank Johnson]]></category>
1201. <category><![CDATA[MAGA]]></category>
1202. <category><![CDATA[Neil Gorsuch]]></category>
1203. <category><![CDATA[No Kings]]></category>
1204. <category><![CDATA[Oliver Wendell Holmes]]></category>
1205. <category><![CDATA[racial justice]]></category>
1206. <category><![CDATA[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]></category>
1207. <category><![CDATA[Sheldon Whitehouse]]></category>
1208. <category><![CDATA[the TRUST Act]]></category>
1209. <category><![CDATA[women's rights]]></category>
1210. <category><![CDATA[worker justice]]></category>
1211. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162577</guid>
1212.  
1213. <description><![CDATA[<p>“I think we can do a lot, if a critical mass of organizations steps forward and develops a plan to go public and visible calling out the undemocratic and dangerous reality of what the Supreme Court majority is doing, particularly these shadowy, opaque, undemocratic ‘emergency’ decisions. Just like we have had and will be having, [&#8230;]</p>
1214. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-supreme-court-is-not-above-the-law-either/">The Supreme Court Is Not Above the Law Either</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1215. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/scales-of-justice.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/scales-of-justice-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-108688" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/scales-of-justice-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/scales-of-justice-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/scales-of-justice.jpg 432w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a>“I think we can do a lot, if a critical mass of organizations steps forward and develops a plan to go public and visible calling out the undemocratic and dangerous reality of what the Supreme Court majority is doing, particularly these shadowy, opaque, undemocratic ‘emergency’ decisions. Just like we have had and will be having, on October 18, successful mass actions of millions in the streets around the country calling for No Kings, worker justice, women’s rights, climate justice, racial justice and more, it is time for such a nationally coordinated action sometime this fall focused on this issue.”</p>
1216. <p>This is <a href="https://tedglick.com/2025/09/23/supremely-courting-authoritarian-rule/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tedglick.com/2025/09/23/supremely-courting-authoritarian-rule/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761598027411000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Sl8dSoqv6JIgFngeHZWmO">what I wrote in a column</a> about a month ago about the Supreme Court. Now that the mass mobilization for October 18 is over, as will be the fall elections as of November 5, I think, at that time, there’s a need for a much closer look at what an activist strategy could be to call out the conservative/MAGA majority on the Supreme Court.</p>
1217. <p>I am fully aware that it is very rare for progressives to do something like this. There is understandable concern that doing so could be seen as “inappropriate,” or “too risky,” or “bad strategy.” After all, in the US system of government, judges have a lot of power. To some extent they are seen as, and often are, above the fray of politics, something seen as often corrupt and dishonest by a lot of people, on the right, left and center.</p>
1218. <p>Of course, “above the fray of politics” sure doesn’t apply to this usually Trump-supporting Supreme Court.</p>
1219. <p>Just in the last few months I have considered with others active in the climate movement whether we should publicly demonstrate calling for a key judicial body, not the Supreme Court, to do the right thing when it comes to a long-term campaign we are leading. We collectively decided it wasn’t the right thing to so.</p>
1220. <p>But it’s different with this Supreme Court. First, there’s the fact that it was very much “politics” that is responsible for the 6-3 conservative majority. Two of the conservatives, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Conan Barrett, obtained their seats because of Republican Party political hypocrisy and raw power politics. Following Antonin Scalia’s death on February 13, 2016 and President Obama’s subsequent nomination of Merrick Garland to replace him, Senate Republicans refused to hold a hearing and vote on that nomination, saying it was too close to the upcoming Presidential election eight months later! This led to the seat being vacant for 14 months until Trump, in 2017, nominated Neil Gorsuch.</p>
1221. <p>Conan Barrett was nominated only 40 days, not eight months, before the 2020 election to replace the deceased Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Republicans didn’t care then about it being “too close” to a Presidential election, and she was confirmed.</p>
1222. <p>So what would be the objective of some kind of activist campaign, or even just a national day of action, focused on the Supreme Court?</p>
1223. <p>One would be, for sure, to remind the country of how Gorsuch and Conan Barrett were nominated, the hypocrisy involved which has led to a court now “out of balance” when it comes to representing the differing views of US law as well as the reality of US public opinion.</p>
1224. <p>Another would be to draw attention to proposals that have been made to address the fundamental unfairness of the present Supreme Court reality. The most broadly-supported proposal, <a href="https://hankjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-johnson-introduces-trust-act-hold-judges-accountable#:~:text=Text%20of%20bill%20HERE.,Issues:%20Justice%20&amp;%20Court%20Reform" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://hankjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-johnson-introduces-trust-act-hold-judges-accountable%23:~:text%3DText%2520of%2520bill%2520HERE.,Issues:%2520Justice%2520%26%2520Court%2520Reform&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761598027411000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0iOTVGdJu6BB6ZYNnHRBb4">the TRUST Act</a> (Transparency and Responsibility in Upholding Standards in the Judiciary) was put forward this spring by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressman Hank Johnson. It is co-sponsored by 26 Senators and 10 House members.</p>
1225. <p>When might a national day, or national week, of action happen? It’d be good if it happened soon, but there are plenty of current fights that need a lot of support, and then there are the holidays, so sometime in the new year seems more realistic.</p>
1226. <p>How about this? March 8 and March 15 are the birthdays of two deceased but still important Supreme Court justices: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. on the 8th, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on March 15. March 8 is also International Women’s Day.</p>
1227. <p>Ginsburg was the second woman in US history to serve on the Supreme Court, so there’s a definite connection there.</p>
1228. <p>Here’s what the Wikipedia entry for Holmes summarizes as his main contributions legally: “Holmes is one of the most widely cited and influential Supreme Court justices in American history, noted for his long tenure on the Court and for his pithy opinions – particularly those on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_liberties" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_liberties&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761598027411000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0e4Ldj6y-6sNbM8sTBHW7t">civil liberties</a> and American constitutional democracy – and deference to the decisions of elected <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_legislature_(United_States)" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_legislature_(United_States)&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761598027411000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3eSs0bZWBG75RLn007E1TX">legislatures</a>.” Wow, very timely for sure!</p>
1229. <p>Just like Trump, the Supreme Court is not above the law!</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/the-supreme-court-is-not-above-the-law-either/">The Supreme Court Is Not Above the Law Either</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1233. </item>
1234. <item>
1235. <title>No Kings?</title>
1236. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-kings/</link>
1238. <dc:creator><![CDATA[John Rachel]]></dc:creator>
1239. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:30:36 +0000</pubDate>
1240. <category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
1241. <category><![CDATA[Classism]]></category>
1242. <category><![CDATA[Deep State]]></category>
1243. <category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
1244. <category><![CDATA[Economic Inequality]]></category>
1245. <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
1246. <category><![CDATA[Compromised Politicians]]></category>
1247. <category><![CDATA[Corrupt Judiciary]]></category>
1248. <category><![CDATA[oligarchs]]></category>
1249. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162566</guid>
1250.  
1251. <description><![CDATA[<p>No Kings! YES! Of course! That’s what inspired American independence in the first place. But autocracy takes many shapes. How about No Oligarchs? Or No Deep State? No Police State? No Mass Surveillance? No Compromised Politicians? No Corrupt Judiciary? There was much enthusiasm and excitement. And talk of channeling that energy into constructive action. There [&#8230;]</p>
1252. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-kings/">No Kings?</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1253. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/No-Kings-Protest_-e1761512501957.jpeg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-162567" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/No-Kings-Protest_-e1761512501957.jpeg" alt="" width="505" height="284" /></a><br />
1254. No Kings! YES! Of course!</p>
1255. <p>That’s what inspired American independence in the first place.</p>
1256. <p>But autocracy takes many shapes.</p>
1257. <p>How about No Oligarchs? Or No Deep State? No Police State? No Mass Surveillance? No Compromised Politicians? No Corrupt Judiciary?</p>
1258. <p>There was much enthusiasm and excitement. And talk of channeling that energy into constructive action. There would be regular Calls to Action sent across social media platforms and by direct email.</p>
1259. <p>“Call your Senator today and urge &#8230;&#8221;</p>
1260. <p>“Call your Representative today and object to &#8230;”</p>
1261. <p>“Go to your congressman’s local office and &#8230;”</p>
1262. <p>What? Is this a joke?</p>
1263. <p>Let me get this right. We’re supposed to call the AIPAC-funded, MIC forever war politicians, the folks that haven’t raised the minimum wage since 2009, the Big Pharma Big Health Insurance lapdogs who STILL have not instituted affordable, quality, universal health care in our country, the warmongering blowhards who have funded the slaughters in Gaza and Ukraine to the tune of $200 billion and counting, the misguided fools who have decided to allocate $1 trillion next year to the wasteful, self-destructive DOD, the elected representatives who kneel at the altar of Wall Street, hedge funds and the big banks, the incompetents who couldn’t even get it together to keep the government open for business &#8230; WE’RE SUPPOSED TO CALL THEM?</p>
1264. <p>I will believe that No Kings is a real, legitimate, grass roots uprising of the people, by the people, and for the people, when they declare unequivocally that the “movement” will devote its energy and resources, direct the preponderance of its organizing efforts, to one vital task — the only one that can make a real difference.</p>
1265. <p>Creating real choice at the polls by putting real people’s candidates on the ballot. When the spokespersons announce that every call to action must unwaveringly focus on true representative government. When all the enthusiasm and excitement is channeled into giving voters in every single contest — 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats — the absolutely essential opportunity in 2026 to vote for a candidate who will listen to and faithfully serve the needs and priorities of every U.S. citizen, not just the wealthy and powerful elite class.</p>
1266. <p><a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Congress_Now-Hiring_.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Congress_Now-Hiring_-300x110.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="110" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-162568" srcset="https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Congress_Now-Hiring_-300x110.jpg 300w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Congress_Now-Hiring_-768x282.jpg 768w, https://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Congress_Now-Hiring_.jpg 952w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a></p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-kings/">No Kings?</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1270. </item>
1271. <item>
1272. <title>No to a US war on Venezuela!</title>
1273. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-to-a-us-war-on-venezuela/</link>
1275. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Young]]></dc:creator>
1276. <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:25:26 +0000</pubDate>
1277. <category><![CDATA[Antiwar]]></category>
1278. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
1279. <category><![CDATA[Hugo Chavez]]></category>
1280. <category><![CDATA[Militarism]]></category>
1281. <category><![CDATA[Nicolas Maduro]]></category>
1282. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
1283. <category><![CDATA[Venezuela]]></category>
1284. <category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
1285. <category><![CDATA[Bolivarian Revolution]]></category>
1286. <category><![CDATA[Yvette Cooper]]></category>
1287. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162564</guid>
1288.  
1289. <description><![CDATA[<p>For the past few weeks the Trump administration has intensified its long-standing aggression against Venezuela by deploying warships (including a nuclear submarine) in the Caribbean Sea in a purported anti-narcotics operation. US forces have carried out at least five incidents of strikes on boats in Venezuelan waters to date, killing 37 people. Trump’s latest move [&#8230;]</p>
1290. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-to-a-us-war-on-venezuela/">No to a US war on Venezuela!</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1291. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-25808 size-full" src="https://d30m66y232rpq4.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/10/President_Trump_Delivers_Remarks_to_the_Venezuelan_American_Community_47145953601.jpg" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" srcset="https://d30m66y232rpq4.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/10/President_Trump_Delivers_Remarks_to_the_Venezuelan_American_Community_47145953601.jpg 1500w, https://d30m66y232rpq4.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/10/President_Trump_Delivers_Remarks_to_the_Venezuelan_American_Community_47145953601-300x200.jpg 300w, https://d30m66y232rpq4.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/10/President_Trump_Delivers_Remarks_to_the_Venezuelan_American_Community_47145953601-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://d30m66y232rpq4.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/10/President_Trump_Delivers_Remarks_to_the_Venezuelan_American_Community_47145953601-768x512.jpg 768w" alt="" width="505" height="336.67" /></p>
1292. <p>For the past few weeks the Trump administration has intensified its long-standing aggression against Venezuela by deploying warships (including a nuclear submarine) in the Caribbean Sea in a purported anti-narcotics operation. US forces have carried out at least five incidents of strikes on boats in Venezuelan waters to date, killing 37 people. Trump’s latest move has been to authorise the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela.</p>
1293. <p>President Nicolas Maduro, as Venezuela’s current leader, has been a focus of this ‘war on drugs’ narrative, justifying the US’s illegal actions by demonising him as a ‘narco-terrorist’ engaged in drug trafficking, despite UN evidence to the contrary. The US also portrays him as being an illegitimate leader, offering a bounty of $50 million for his capture.</p>
1294. <p>But overthrowing the Bolivarian Revolution has been a project of US imperialism ever since Huge Chávez became President in 1999 and set about transforming the country through a series of far-reaching measures including healthcare, education, land redistribution and anti-poverty programmes.</p>
1295. <p>Key to these revolutionary changes was, and still is, the massive wealth in oil reserves that Venezuela has – the largest in the world – and the revenues generated from them. Chávez’s massive programme of wealth redistribution redirected these oil revenues to collective social purposes rather than funding the opulent lifestyle of Venezuela’s elites.</p>
1296. <p>Additionally, to help realise his vision that “another world is possible”, not just for Venezuela, Chávez also envisaged (and ultimately helped create) key regional organisations to unite Latin American voices and provide progressive economic alternatives to neo-liberalism.</p>
1297. <p>Aghast at what this represented, both politically and economically, the US has ever since then, in concert with the extreme right-wing elites in Venezuela, sought to destabilise the country and effect ‘regime change’.</p>
1298. <p>In 2002, a US-backed military coup temporarily ousted Chávez before a spontaneous popular uprising restored him to the presidency. Other US tactics to destabilise the country have included massive funding of opposition groups to try –unsuccessfully – to win elections, coupled with disinformation campaigns to isolate the country, campaigns of violence on the streets, further coup attempts and domestic sabotage.</p>
1299. <p>But the most powerful US weapon against Venezuela has been an increasingly severe set of economic sanctions, illegal under international law, designed to destroy the economy and bring the country to its knees.</p>
1300. <p>The US sanctions, first introduced by Obama in 2015 and ramped up by Trump in his first presidency into a crippling economic, trade and financial blockade, led to a 99% fall in oil revenues and well over a hundred thousand unnecessary deaths.</p>
1301. <p>Complementing this, Trump has at various times threatened military action against Venezuela. He also backed minor politician Juan Guaidό’s attempt to bring about ‘regime change’ by declaring himself ’interim president’ in 2019. But despite lavish bankrolling of his activities, including insurrectionary adventures, with confiscated Venezuelan assets, this attempt at ‘regime change’ fizzled out when the right-wing Venezuelan opposition ditched Guaidó in December 2022.</p>
1302. <p>Throughout and to this day, the British government has supported the US’s policy, even levying its own sanctions and withholding 31 tons of Venezuelan gold worth roughly $2 billion lodged in the Bank of England’s vaults.</p>
1303. <p>Despite all this, the Venezuelan economy has survived – even growing by between 5 to 6% in 2024 – though at the cost of great hardship for millions of ordinary Venezuelans.</p>
1304. <p>But the political and economic dynamics motivating this drive by US imperialism to secure ‘regime change’ have not lessened.</p>
1305. <p>Politically, Venezuela’s commitment to Latin American independence and resistance to neo-liberalism are anathema to the US’s historic and continuing commitment to the Monroe Doctrine. Recent progressive left electoral successes in Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Brazil and Uruguay, for example, are seen by the US government as a challenge to its dominance.</p>
1306. <p>Economically, Venezuela is a rich country with vast mineral reserves, but the prize is its oil. In 2023 Trump himself publicly admitted that he wanted to overthrow Maduro to secure control over Venezuela’s oil, mirroring the way he boasted in 2020 that he was militarily occupying Syria’s crude oil-rich regions in order to “take the oil”.</p>
1307. <p>The overthrow of the Bolivarian Revolution would enable the US to control Venezuela’s oil and help sustain the US’s faltering economy, as well as shore up the rhetoric of Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.</p>
1308. <p>But Trump is being challenged domestically, in the media and Congress. Although Congressional Democrats have long supported sanctions against Venezuela, their Senate resolution requiring Trump to seek Congressional authorisation before any further military strikes purportedly aimed at drug cartels was defeated 48-51 (with two Republicans in favour and one Democrat against).</p>
1309. <p>Opposition in Latin America and the Caribbean is much more forthright. The region is clear about the enormous implications if the US were to be successful in securing ‘regime change’, especially for the future of blockaded Cuba, which has been in US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s sights for longer than Venezuela, and for heavily-sanctioned Nicaragua. Trump has also been making very similar threats against President Petro’s government in Colombia, calling openly for ‘regime change’.</p>
1310. <p>Encapsulating these concerns, the ALBA bloc of countries issued a statement strongly condemning the US’s actions: “<em>These manoeuvres not only constitute a direct attack on the independence of Venezuela, but also a threat to the stability and self-determination of all the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (…) We categorically reject the orders from the United States government to deploy military forces under false pretexts, with the clear intention of imposing illegal, interventionist policies that are contrary to the constitutional order of the States of Latin America and the Caribbean.</em>”</p>
1311. <p>The Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (VSC) has launched a <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-war-on-venezuela">petition</a> urging governments and political actors internationally to join in opposing military intervention and all threats to peace in the region.</p>
1312. <p>The British government has disgracefully failed to join the criticism being voiced in Latin America and the US of Trump’s illegal actions, committing only to “fighting the scourge of drugs…accordance with the fundamental principles of the UN Charter”.</p>
1313. <p>A linked letter to Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper is therefore urging them to join the international effort against military intervention and in support of peace.</p>
1314. <p>VSC will be joining with forces across the British labour, peace and solidarity movements to express maximum opposition to US military aggression in the weeks and months ahead.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/no-to-a-us-war-on-venezuela/">No to a US war on Venezuela!</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1318. </item>
1319. <item>
1320. <title>From Illusion to Real Peace: Trump’s Test in Gaza and Ukraine</title>
1321. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/from-illusion-to-real-peace-trumps-test-in-gaza-and-ukraine/</link>
1323. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares]]></dc:creator>
1324. <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2025 15:30:10 +0000</pubDate>
1325. <category><![CDATA[Benjamin Netanyahu]]></category>
1326. <category><![CDATA[Diplomacy]]></category>
1327. <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category>
1328. <category><![CDATA[Gaza]]></category>
1329. <category><![CDATA[Israel (part of Mandate Palestine)]]></category>
1330. <category><![CDATA[John F. Kennedy]]></category>
1331. <category><![CDATA[Militarism]]></category>
1332. <category><![CDATA[NATO]]></category>
1333. <category><![CDATA[Palestine]]></category>
1334. <category><![CDATA[Peace]]></category>
1335. <category><![CDATA[Recep Tayyip Erdogan]]></category>
1336. <category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>
1337. <category><![CDATA[The Lobby]]></category>
1338. <category><![CDATA[Türkiye]]></category>
1339. <category><![CDATA[Ukraine]]></category>
1340. <category><![CDATA[UN Security Council]]></category>
1341. <category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
1342. <category><![CDATA[Viktor Orban]]></category>
1343. <category><![CDATA[Vladimir Putin]]></category>
1344. <category><![CDATA[War]]></category>
1345. <category><![CDATA[Zionism]]></category>
1346. <category><![CDATA[Abdel Fattah el-Sisi]]></category>
1347. <category><![CDATA[Carl von Clausewitz]]></category>
1348. <category><![CDATA[J. William Fulbright]]></category>
1349. <category><![CDATA[Lyndon Johnson]]></category>
1350. <category><![CDATA[Miriam Adelson]]></category>
1351. <category><![CDATA[Prabowo Subianto]]></category>
1352. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162553</guid>
1353.  
1354. <description><![CDATA[<p>United States President Donald Trump styles himself as a peacemaker. In his rhetoric, he claims credit for his efforts to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Yet beneath the grandstanding lies an absence of substance, at least to date. The problem is not Trump’s lack of effort, but his lack of proper concepts. Trump [&#8230;]</p>
1355. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/from-illusion-to-real-peace-trumps-test-in-gaza-and-ukraine/">From Illusion to Real Peace: Trump’s Test in Gaza and Ukraine</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1356. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>United States President Donald Trump styles himself as a peacemaker. In his rhetoric, he claims credit for his efforts to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Yet beneath the grandstanding lies an absence of substance, at least to date.</p>
1357. <p>The problem is not Trump’s lack of effort, but his lack of proper concepts. Trump confuses “peace” with “ceasefires,” which sooner or later revert to war (typically sooner). In fact, American presidents from Lyndon Johnson onward have been subservient to the military-industrial complex, which profits from endless war. Trump is merely following in that line by avoiding a genuine resolution to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.</p>
1358. <p>Peace is not a ceasefire. Lasting peace is achieved by resolving the underlying political disputes that led to the war. This requires grappling with history, international law and political interests that fuel conflicts. Without addressing the root causes of war, ceasefires are a mere intermission between rounds of slaughter.</p>
1359. <p>Trump has proposed what he calls a “<a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=522969ea0d&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3D522969ea0d%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1oBdiLSXbvqaD6f_nBEwl6">peace plan</a>” for Gaza. However, what he outlines amounts to nothing more than a ceasefire. His plan fails to address the core political issue of Palestinian statehood. A true peace plan would tie together four outcomes: the end of Israel’s genocide, Hamas’s disarmament, Palestine’s membership in the United Nations, and the normalisation of diplomatic ties with Israel and Palestine throughout the world. These foundational principles are absent from Trump’s plan, which is why no country has signed off on it despite White House insinuations to the contrary.  At most, some countries have backed the “<a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=cdb82150b2&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3Dcdb82150b2%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0sakkpBvZQ6Q7CmY_UBYjt">Declaration for Enduring Peace and Prosperity</a>,” a temporising gesture.</p>
1360. <p>Trump’s peace plan was presented to Arab and Muslim countries to deflect attention from the global momentum for Palestinian statehood. The US plan is designed to undercut that momentum, allowing Israel to continue its de facto annexation of the West Bank and its ongoing bombardment of Gaza and restrictions of emergency relief under the ruse of security. Israel’s ambitions are to eradicate the possibility of a Palestinian state, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made <a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=4ccb76cd95&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3D4ccb76cd95%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0MBOlkvLKphKPScxTFoeC_">explicit</a> at the UN in September.  So far, Trump and his associates have simply been advancing Netanyahu’s agenda.</p>
1361. <p>Trump’s “plan” is already unravelling, much like the Oslo Accords, the Camp David Summit, and every other “peace process” that treated Palestinian statehood as a distant aspiration rather than the solution to the conflict.  If Trump really wants to end the war – a somewhat doubtful proposition – he’d have to break with Big Tech and the rest of the military-industrial complex (recipients of vast <a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=c397f4de0b&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3Dc397f4de0b%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3nXShej7aAQhrc00WZmIs3">arms contracts</a> funded by the US).  Since October 2023, the US has spent <a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=fea567aa87&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3Dfea567aa87%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0szEVbDxD9-c7qK65F6nZB">$21.7bn on military aid</a> to Israel, much of it returning to Silicon Valley.</p>
1362. <p>Trump would also have to break with his donor-in-chief, Miriam Adelson, and the Zionist lobby.  In doing so, he would at least represent the American people (who <a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=ad8b113990&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3Dad8b113990%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1H7M5G3EYQQp2tSreIudql">support a state</a> of Palestine) and uphold American strategic interests. The US would join the overwhelming global consensus, which endorses the implementation of the two-state solution, rooted in <a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=feb53f7578&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3Dfeb53f7578%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1qDUE_-DiLeLirDx7272nE">UN Security Council</a> resolutions and <a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=9da867f86e&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3D9da867f86e%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3oDZwtY_YEoEicfwLbUc6Q">ICJ opinions</a>.</p>
1363. <p>The same failure of Trump’s peacemaking holds in Ukraine. Trump repeatedly claimed during the campaign that he could end the war “<a href="https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&amp;id=54960801df&amp;e=ad30159897" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf%26id%3D54960801df%26e%3Dad30159897&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1761570725428000&amp;usg=AOvVaw34sStCfFqyakNYV-g5dk4Y">in 24 hours</a>”. Yet what he has been proposing is a ceasefire, not a political solution. The war continues.</p>
1364. <p>The cause of the Ukraine war is no mystery – if one looks beyond the pablum of the mainstream media. The casus belli was the push by the US military-industrial complex for NATO’s endless expansion, including to Ukraine and Georgia, and the US-backed coup in Kyiv in February 2014 to bring to power a pro-NATO regime, which ignited the war. The key to peace in Ukraine, then and now, was for Ukraine to maintain its neutrality as a bridge between Russia and NATO.</p>
1365. <p>In March-April 2022, when Turkiye mediated a peace agreement in the Istanbul Process, based on Ukraine’s return to neutrality, the Americans and the British pushed the Ukrainians to walk out of the talks. Until the US clearly renounces NATO’s expansion to Ukraine, there can be no sustainable peace. The only way forward is a negotiated settlement based on Ukraine’s neutrality in the context of mutual security of Russia, Ukraine, and the NATO countries.</p>
1366. <p>Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz famously characterised war as the continuation of politics with other means. He was right. Yet it is more accurate to say that war is the failure of politics that leads to conflict. When political problems are deferred or denied, and governments fail to negotiate over essential political issues, war too often ensues.  Real peace requires the courage and capacity to engage in politics, and to face down the war profiteers.</p>
1367. <p>No president since John F Kennedy has really tried to make peace. Many close observers of Washington believe that it was Kennedy’s assassination that irrevocably put the military-industrial complex in the seat of power. In addition, the US arrogance of power already noted by J William Fulbright in the 1960s (in reference to the misguided Vietnam War) is another culprit. Trump, like his predecessors, believes that US bullying, misdirection, financial pressures, coercive sanctions and propaganda will be enough to force Putin to submit to NATO, and the Muslim world to submit to Israel’s permanent rule over Palestine.</p>
1368. <p>Trump and the rest of the Washington political establishment, beholden to the military-industrial complex, will not on their own account move beyond these ongoing delusions. Despite decades of Israeli occupation of Palestine and more than a decade of war in Ukraine (which started with the 2014 coup), the wars continue despite the ongoing attempts by the US to assert its will. In the meantime, the money pours into the coffers of the war machine.</p>
1369. <p>Nonetheless, there is still a glimmer of hope, since reality is a stubborn thing.</p>
1370. <p>When Trump soon arrives in Budapest to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his deeply knowledgeable and realistic host, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, can help Trump to grasp a fundamental truth: NATO enlargement must end to bring peace to Ukraine. Similarly, Trump’s trusted counterparts in the Islamic world –  Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto – can explain to Trump the utter necessity of Palestine as a UN member state now, as the very precondition of Hamas’s disarmament and peace, not as a vague promise for the end of history.</p>
1371. <p>Trump can bring peace if he reverts to diplomacy. Yes, he would have to face down the military-industrial complex, the Zionist lobby and the warmongers, but he would have the world and the American people on his side.</p>
1372. <ul>
1373. <li>First published at <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/10/23/from-illusion-to-real-peace-trumps-test-in-gaza-and-ukraine"><em>Al Jazeera</em></a>.</li>
1374. </ul>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/from-illusion-to-real-peace-trumps-test-in-gaza-and-ukraine/">From Illusion to Real Peace: Trump’s Test in Gaza and Ukraine</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1378. </item>
1379. <item>
1380. <title>Racist and Mendacious Australia: Cowardly and Unethical ABC Under-counts Gaza Deaths</title>
1381. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/racist-and-mendacious-australia-cowardly-and-unethical-abc-under-counts-gaza-deaths/</link>
1383. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Polya]]></dc:creator>
1384. <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2025 15:25:57 +0000</pubDate>
1385. <category><![CDATA[Censorship]]></category>
1386. <category><![CDATA[Crimes against Humanity]]></category>
1387. <category><![CDATA[Crimes against Peace]]></category>
1388. <category><![CDATA[Disinformation]]></category>
1389. <category><![CDATA[Genocide]]></category>
1390. <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
1391. <category><![CDATA[Oceania]]></category>
1392. <category><![CDATA[War Crimes]]></category>
1393. <category><![CDATA[Palestine Australia Relief and Action Group]]></category>
1394. <category><![CDATA[Reem Burrows]]></category>
1395. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162557</guid>
1396.  
1397. <description><![CDATA[<p>The core ethos of decent Humanity is Kindness and Truth but this is grossly violated by the racism and mendacity of  US-, UK-, Apartheid Israel- and Zionist-perverted and US lackey Australia. War is the penultimate in racism and genocide the ultimate in racism. Australia has been involved in all 1950 onwards US Asian Wars, atrocities [&#8230;]</p>
1398. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/racist-and-mendacious-australia-cowardly-and-unethical-abc-under-counts-gaza-deaths/">Racist and Mendacious Australia: Cowardly and Unethical ABC Under-counts Gaza Deaths</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1399. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The core ethos of decent Humanity is Kindness and Truth but this is grossly violated by the racism and mendacity of  US-, UK-, Apartheid Israel- and Zionist-perverted and US lackey Australia. War is the penultimate in racism and genocide the ultimate in racism. Australia has been involved in all 1950 onwards US Asian Wars, atrocities associated with 40 million Asian “deaths from violence and deprivation” (Google this phrase), with the Right-Far Right Coalition (presently in Opposition) involved in all and Centre-Right Labor  (presently in Government) being involved in all except for the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. Australia ignores the horrendous extent of this carnage.</p>
1400. <p>An international team of expert epidemiologists published in <em>The Lancet</em> found that 64,260 Gazans had been killed violently by 30 June 2024 (Day 269 of the Gaza Genocide). Assuming the same rate of killing, this translates to 174,625 Direct (violent) deaths by 7 October  2025 (Day 731 i.e. after 2 years). However other expert epidemiologists published in The Lancet and elsewhere have “conservatively” estimated that deaths from deprivation (Indirect deaths) are 4 times the Direct deaths, this implying 174,625 x 4 = 698,500 Indirect deaths and a total of 873,125 “deaths from violence and deprivation” (Google this phrase) by 7 October 2025. Australia ignores the horrendous extent of this carnage too.</p>
1401. <p>Similarly,  experts estimated 64,260 violent deaths by 30 June 2024 (Day 269 of the killing) which translates to 136,000 violent deaths by 25 April 2025 (Day 569 of the killing). They “conservatively” estimated 4 non-violent deaths from deprivation (indirect deaths) for every violent death (direct death), this indicating 544,000 indirect deaths, and hence a total of 680,000 deaths by 25 April 2025, Anzac Day, Australia’s war dead memorial day.</p>
1402. <p>However Google 680,000 with “ABC News” and you will discover the ABC reporting “more than 65,000” in response to audience complaints about a broadcast assertion that “680,000 people have been killed in Gaza”: “ABC NEWS | News Breakfast | Death toll in Gaza | 23 September 2025 | Resolved. Two audience members raised a concern that a guest interviewed on News Breakfast said that 680,000 people have been killed in Gaza which was not challenged by the presenters. That figure is unverified and no context about the source was provided in the interview. To address the concern, during the live program on 24 September 2025, News Breakfast made an on-air clarification stating that: “And we just want to clarify something said on the program yesterday. We invited Reem Burrows from the Palestine Australia Relief and Action Group on the program to discuss Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN. During that interview, she said it’s reported over 680,000 people have been killed in Gaza, the current death toll from Gaza’s Ministry of Health is more than 65,000″ (ABC, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/about/ombudsman/complaints/resolved/news-breakfast-death-toll-in-gaza/105810286">Resolved complaint</a>, 24 September  2025).</p>
1403. <p><strong>Indeed if you Google “ABC News” with 65,000,  66,000 or 67,000 you will find that the ABC “likes” such estimates that under-count the estimates of expert epidemiologists by a factor of 13-fold.  </strong></p>
1404. <p>I responded to the ABC “Resolved complaint” report by publishing a detailed rejoinder in Gideon Polya, “<a href="https://countercurrents.org/2025/10/mendaxocracy-kakistocracy-murdochracy-corporatocracy-australia-lazy-abc-grossly-undercounts-gaza-genocide/">Mendaxocracy, Kakistocracy, Murdochracy &amp; Corporatocracy Australia: Lazy ABC Grossly Undercounts Gaza Genocide</a>”, <em>Countercurrents</em>, 23 October 2025: “The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC, Australia’s taxpayer-funded equivalent of the UK BBC) has an appalling record of under-counting Indigenous deaths in US wars. When a Palestinian activist referred to 680,000 Gaza deaths the ABC responded to complaints and offered 65,000 deaths. In reality Gaza deaths from violence and deprivation after 2 years of the Gaza Genocide and Gaza Holocaust now total 873,000 based on data in <em>The Lancet</em>…</p>
1405. <p>The ABC has an extremely bad record when it comes to reporting the Indigenous death toll in US wars. Thus, on the occasion of the (incomplete) US withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, the ABC reported that “The withdrawal ends a war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers dead”. However, the horrible reality is otherwise: 2.7 million Iraqi deaths from violence and deprivation in the 2003-2011 Iraqi Genocide and Iraqi Holocaust (Gideon Polya, “US-imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust &amp; Muslim Genocide”). There are 5 million orphans in Iraq  – go figure…</p>
1406. <p>The ABC permitted me to make 3 nation-wide broadcasts but then rendered me “invisible” for 20 years despite my thousand huge articles and 10 huge books. I have individually addressed thousands of carefully-researched Letters to Mainstream media but only a dozen have evaded the censor. Recently <em>Pearls &amp; Irritations</em> published 10 of my submitted Letters in a row but then applied total censorship. For revelations Google “<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/australian-mainstream-media-lying-censorshp">Australian Mainstream media lying &amp; censorship</a>.”</p>
1407. <p><b>Some useful suggestions</b>:</p>
1408. <p>(1). All ABC managers should be literally kicked out of the ABC because censorship of the Truth is a betrayal of trust.</p>
1409. <p>(2). I would be happy to manage the ABC for the lowest salary of a full-time ABC employee. The ABC should be about urgently reporting the Truth and I can bring a mountain of Elephant in the Room things  from a thousand articles and 9 huge books that the present emasculated and subverted ABC ignores.</p>
1410. <p>(3). A modest suggestion: that  the ABC reports the Truth at least 2 days each year – I would nominate Anzac Day and Remembrance Day and suggest possible licence on those days from legal constraints on truth-telling.</p>
1411. <p>(4). Although I have been rendered “invisible” to Mainstream Australia I am proud to have  defended in print (necessarily outside Mendaxocracy Australia, “ruled by liars”) about 40 truth-telling Australian writers variously importuned by the liars and bullies. A decent ABC should honour and court these truth-tellers.</p>
1412. <p>(5). Journalists working for commercial media are pressured to lie by omission and commission by the owner-imposed culture. However ABC journalists are taxpayer-funded and such lying can be  akin to betrayal, treason and theft.</p>
1413. <p>(6). Censorship is anathema to the core academic ethos of commitment to Truth and free speech but this has been grossly perverted by grossly over-paid managers (“refugees from scholarship” according to my late father) (see Gideon Polya, “<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/freeuniversityeducation/academic-censorship">Current academic censorship and self-censorship in Australian universities</a>,” Free University Education). The same restitution of Truth and free speech is demanded of both universities and the ABC.</p>
1414. <p>(7). For 2 years the world has looked on while Zionist Israelis unforgivably perpetrated a Gaza Massacre, Gaza Genocide and Gaza Holocaust. The ABC should report the Truth (for a detailed and exhaustively referenced account see Gideon Polya, “<a href="https://countercurrents.org/2025/10/unforgivable-2-year-gaza-massacre-gaza-genocide-gaza-holocaust-by-50-appalling-numbers/">Unforgivable 2-Year Gaza Massacre, Gaza Genocide &amp; Gaza Holocaust By 50 Appalling Numbers</a>,” <em>Countercurrents</em>, 14 October 2025). Please inform everyone you can – lying Mainstream media and politician presstitutes certainly won’t.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/racist-and-mendacious-australia-cowardly-and-unethical-abc-under-counts-gaza-deaths/">Racist and Mendacious Australia: Cowardly and Unethical ABC Under-counts Gaza Deaths</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
1418. </item>
1419. <item>
1420. <title>Fake Boats and Bogus Admirals: Peter Cowell’s Fictional Mercy Fleet</title>
1421. <link>https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/fake-boats-and-bogus-admirals-peter-cowells-fictional-mercy-fleet/</link>
1423. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Binoy Kampmark]]></dc:creator>
1424. <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2025 01:21:32 +0000</pubDate>
1425. <category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category>
1426. <category><![CDATA[Fiji]]></category>
1427. <category><![CDATA[IntSAR]]></category>
1428. <category><![CDATA[Peter Cowell]]></category>
1429. <category><![CDATA[Sakiusa Raivoce]]></category>
1430. <category><![CDATA[Sitiveni Rabuka]]></category>
1431. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dissidentvoice.org/?p=162535</guid>
1432.  
1433. <description><![CDATA[<p>The wish to be credulous is central to the fraudulent scheme. The one playing the fraud can always rely on some connivance and collaboration from the tricked and the gulled. Many an art curator is bound to turn scarlet at the prospect that their expertise was utterly subverted by a counterfeiter of Picasso and Matisse. [&#8230;]</p>
1434. The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/fake-boats-and-bogus-admirals-peter-cowells-fictional-mercy-fleet/">Fake Boats and Bogus Admirals: Peter Cowell’s Fictional Mercy Fleet</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></description>
1435. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The wish to be credulous is central to the fraudulent scheme. The one playing the fraud can always rely on some connivance and collaboration from the tricked and the gulled. Many an art curator is bound to turn scarlet at the prospect that their expertise was utterly subverted by a counterfeiter of Picasso and Matisse. The Hungarian painter Elmyr de Hory, immortalized in Orson Welles’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C2nt72h0cQ"><em>F for Fake</em></a>, is but one such example. Claiming to be a dispossessed aristocrat with a lucrative stash of originals, he could whip up a Matisse in a matter of minutes. The rest was seduction. And you can hardly blame those who purchased his masterful forgeries, which were, in some cases, arguably the equal of the original masters whose style was so sincerely imitated.</p>
1436. <p>Peter Cowell is yet another one of these figures of the conjuring trick. For 25 years, he was able to pose as an admiral of a fictional fleet.  Hardly odd, given that the defense forces of the world are stuffed and oiled on fantastic assumptions and inaccurate assessments of threats and exaggerated notions of insecurity.  In the industry, people fell for “Admiral Cowell”. There was nothing off about him, even when there was. A picture <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-22/fake-admiral-exposed-peddling-disaster-relief-scheme-25-years/105890312">published</a> by the ABC shows a uniformed buffoonish character with ill-fitting spectacles on a full, expansive face, suggesting that he might be taking his role just a bit too seriously. But that is in the nature of these projects: an appreciation for the costume and the custom. Wear the costume well, and you might get away with murder.</p>
1437. <p>The central project of deception was the mercy fleet dubbed the IntSAR (International Sea/Air Rescue), <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-22/fake-admiral-exposed-peddling-disaster-relief-scheme-25-years/105890312">pitched</a> as a scheme requiring an annual contribution of A$25 million from partner nations. The sheer scale of the project seemed to resist questioning: in the realm of charlatanry, it makes sense to go big.</p>
1438. <p>In 2022, Cowell found himself in the company of then Fijian opposition leader Sitiveni Rabuka, the High Commissioner for Fiji Ajay Amrit, and retired Colonel Sakiusa Raivoce, one of the founders of the People’s Alliance Party. The ABC news report notes the agenda of the discussion: the hatching of possible plans to establish a base of operations for the mercy fleet that would operate in the region. A defence contractor pseudonymously named “Joel” was also in attendance. Cordial as the meeting was, nothing was etched.</p>
1439. <p>But another meeting was scheduled to take place in March 2023, this time with Rabuka as Fiji’s prime minister. Interest in the IntSAR program had lingered, and a letter acknowledging Cowell’s urgings to pursue the project <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-22/fake-admiral-exposed-peddling-disaster-relief-scheme-25-years/105890312">revealed</a> Rabuka’s agreement to meet him along with the Admiralty delegation in the capital. That meeting never took place, Cowell being, by that point, stranded in Thailand and short of cash for a fare to Fiji. Well and truly deceived, Rabuka was terse in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-22/fake-admiral-exposed-peddling-disaster-relief-scheme-25-years/105890312">responding to questions</a> put to him by the ABC. “I recall attending a meeting in Fiji around 2022 with a delegation from Australia regarding a proposal to establish a search and rescue operation in Fiji,” he stated. “However, nothing concrete resulted from that discussion – no agreement was signed, and neither were any funds or land handed over, or promised.” Notice, in these words, the false note of circumspection and prudence that evidently failed to manifest in 2023.</p>
1440. <p>In 2021, Cowell sought to interest the Federal Coalition government in the IntSAR project. While it is not clear if the brief outlining the proposals was received, let alone taken seriously, it made grand claims of having secured A$800 million in funding from 30 member states, with the ultimate goal of obtaining contributions from a further 120. “We request that the Morrison Government as a cabinet fully support this diplomatic initiative as the Primary Diplomatic Sponsor Nation and Host to the IntSAR Commission,” it read. Were this to happen, Cowell and his team would “happily support Australia taking the credit for the initiative”. In May 2022, we find a frustrated Cowell <a href="https://x.com/cowell_adm/status/1527311275180830722">lamenting</a> a lack of government interest in his enterprise, a missed opportunity costing thousands of “Aussie jobs”. IntSAR would therefore take “its ship building needs to Asia. Our water bombers too. [A$]3.7 billion per year missed from the economic recovery.”</p>
1441. <p>The Bathurst Regional Council <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-22/fake-admiral-exposed-peddling-disaster-relief-scheme-25-years/105890312">also confirmed</a> that representatives of the the IntSAR commission approached it in 2020 with a proposal to develop an empty parcel of land at the Bathurst airport in central New South Wales. From it would spring a private airport and training facility. Cowell even sought to recruit a few individuals for his phantom effort. One of them, former NSW police detective Scott Rogan, now <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-22/fake-admiral-exposed-peddling-disaster-relief-scheme-25-years/105890312">claims</a> to have detected something smelly. “There were a few things that just didn’t feel quite right about it all.”</p>
1442. <p>Even now, Cowell flashes as a poster boy for the fooled, an advertisement for the deluded. On LinkedIn, that platform where the lie becomes digestible fiction, he <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adm-peter-cowell-rtd-876a6756/?originalSubdomain=au">advertises himself</a> rather grandly as the former chairman of the IntSAR Admiralty Board.  In his listed experience about a fantasy, we get such offcuts as “diplomatic coordinator” in efforts to establish the “IntSAR Commission by Treaty”. We see him promoting himself as the “original theorist of asymmetric industrial relations”, thrown in with the flatulent title of “geostrategic military consultant”. This is the gold gibberish that makes sense in a social media world of ennobled mediocrity and marked flattery. In the end, you are almost impressed by the man, having given legs to a fictional scheme that lasted for a quarter of a century with virtually no demurral.</p>The post <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/fake-boats-and-bogus-admirals-peter-cowells-fictional-mercy-fleet/">Fake Boats and Bogus Admirals: Peter Cowell’s Fictional Mercy Fleet</a> first appeared on <a href="https://dissidentvoice.org">Dissident Voice</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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